A Warrior Who Fought Custer

WOODEN LEG, A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER, HOLDING A
RIFLE CAPTURED BY A CHEYENNE COMPANION WARRIOR AT

A WARRIOR WHO
FOUGHT CUSTER

Interpreted fcy
THOMAS B. MARQUIS

Illustrated

MINNEAPOLIS

THE MIDWEST COMPANY

MCMXXXI

COFYBIGHT, 1931, BY

THE MIDWEST COMPANY

Printed in the United States

"I OFTEN THINK THAT IF I WERE AN INDIAN I WOULD GREATLY
PREFER TO CAST MY LOT AMONG THOSE OF MY PEOPLE WHO
ADHERED TO THE FREE OPEN PLAINS RATHER THAN SUBMIT TO THE
CONFINED LIMITS OF A RESERVATION, THERE TO BE THE RECIPIENT
OF THE BLESSED BENEFITS OF CIVILIZATION, WITH ITS VICES
THROWN IN WITHOUT STINT OR MEASURE."

from paffe IB of General Oiutor 9 * book, MY Lm ON TOT PLAINS.
published 1876. a few montht before hif death.

The Author's Statement.

The Indian story of Ouster's last battle has never
been told, except in a few fragmentary interviews
that have been distorted into extravagant fiction.
There were no white men survivors of that most
thrilling of American frontier tragedies, so the
veteran hostile red warriors have exclusive posses-
sion of the key to the mystery as to how it happened.

The present author, sixty-one years old and a res-
ident of Montana throughout the past forty-one
years, decided in 1922 to apply himself at probing
into this matter. He served a few months as
agency physician for the Northern Cheyennes, a
tribe allied with the Sioux in the annihilation of
Custer. Since then, the investigator has been in
close association with these Indians. He has learned
the old-time plains Indian sign-talk to a degree en-
abling him to dispense with interpreters, except in
rare instances. He has held out continual invita-
tion for Ouster-battle veteran warriors to visit his
home, partake of his food and smoke his tobacco.
After a long siege, they began to come. Later, they
began to talk, but only a little. Still later, after they

THE AUTHOR'S STATEMENT

had found out that this ingratiating white man was
not scheming to entrap them into fatal admissions,
they told the whole story. Not only did they answer
all questions, but they added spontaneous informa-
tion concerning every detail of the battle and of the
entire hostile Indian movements during that event-
ful summer of 1876.

Sixteen hundred of these Montana Cheyennes
were with the Sioux horde in the battle camps be-
side the Little Bighorn river. All of the Sioux were
settled soon afterward in the Dakotas, and they
stayed there. The Cheyennes were located on a res-
ervation in the heart of the region where had been
the conflicts. During the subsequent more than fifty
years they have viewed over and over the central
historic spots. Thus they have kept their memories
fresh or have kept each other prompted into true
recollections. This advantageous condition has ren-
dered them the best of first-hand authorities. Up to
late 1930, seventeen Cheyennes who were adult
warriors at Custer battle were yet alive.

Wooden Leg became the author's favorite narra-
tor. It seemed that his lifetime biography should
surround his special battle story, so that readers
might learn what kind of people were the hostile In-
dians of that day. Hour after hour, on scores of
different occasions in recent years, the elderly white*

vi

THE AUTHOR'S STATEMENT

man doctor has sat enthralled by the well-connected
and vivid sign-talk recountings of this companion so
congenial. Wooden Leg's gestures often were sup-
plemented by his dainty pencil drawings and by his
sketched maps papers now treasured as precious
documents. A few stray English words from his ex-
tremely scant vocabulary of them were besprinkled
through the efforts at full expression.

The principal story-teller's statements of essential
facts have been amalgamated with those of his fellow
tribesmen who fought as companions with him.
Groups of them, with him as the leader, took the
author many times into assemblage. Thus all points
of importance have been checked and corroborated
or corrected. The helpers have been Limpy, Pine,
Bobtail Horse, Sun Bear, Black Horse, Two Feathers,
Wolf Chief, Little Sun, Blackbird, Big Beaver, White
Moon, White Wolf, Big Crow, Medicine Bull, the
younger Little Wolf and other old men, as well as
some old women and a few Sioux, all of whom were
with the hostile Indians when Custer came.

THOMAS B. MARQUIS, M.D.

vu

Contents.

CHAPTER PAC

I BOYHOOD WILD DATS 1

II ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS 20

III CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE 56

IV WORSHIPING THE GREAT MEDICINE 123

V OFF THE RESERVATION 155

VI SWARMING OF ANGERED INDIANS 177

VII SOLDIERS FROM THE SOUTHWARD 193

VIII ON THE LITTLE BIGHORN 208

IX THE COMING OF CUSTER 217

X THE SPOILS OF BATTLE 258

XI ROVING AFTER THE VICTORY 272

XII SURRENDER OF THE CHEYENNES 295

XIII TAKEN TO THE SOUTH 310

XIV HOME AGAIN ON TONGUE RIVER 325

XV A TAMED OLD MAN 348

XVI CLEARING THE DOCKET 375

Illustrations.

Wooden Leg, a warrior who fought Custer, holding a rifle
captured by a Cheyenne companion warrior at Ouster's
last battle Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Stone pen used by old-time Indians as lookout shelter for
sentinel. This one is on a hill overlooking Tongue river,
near Ashland, Montana 28

Cheyenne women setting up a tepee 76

A Cheyenne sweat lodge 112

A* Cheyenne woman tanning 112

Wooden Leg making Custer battle drawings for the author. 220

Limpy, a Cheyenne veteran of Custer's last battle, standing
at the Little Bighorn ford where the Indians crossed to
meet the Custer soldiers 240

Big Beaver, a veteran Cheyenne warrior, standing at the
spot where he saw the last Custer soldier killed, June
25,1876 296

Wooden Leg, his wife and their daughter, in 1914 . . 360

MAPS

Camp sites and other salient points in vicinity of Custer
battlefield, Montana 387

Sketch map of hostile Indians 9 course of travel in Mon-
tana, 1876 389

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT
CUSTER

Boyhood Wild Days.

Seventy-three years ago (1858) I was born when
my people were camped by the waters of the Chey-
enne river, in the Black Hills. Both of my parents
were of the Northern Cheyenne tribe of Indians. My
father had two names, as often is the case among us.
He sometimes was called Many Bullet Wounds, be-
cause of such marks of warfare on his body. But
his preferred name was White Buffalo Shaking Off the
Dust. My mother's name was Eagle Feather on the
Forehead. Marriage during the old Indian days did
not change any woman's name, so all through her
lifetime this same term was used for her.

My father's father went to Washington, as a dele-
gate from our tribe, before I was born. He was known
as No Braids. The differing words to indicate my
grandfather, my father, my mother, and myself show
our old way of keeping individuality, regardless of
parentage or marriage. My brothers and sisters each

1

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

had a name different from mine and from our father
and mother.

I was known, during my boyhood, as Eats From
the Hand. But this baby name was set aside during
my youth. The change came about in this manner:

On a certain occasion, many years before my birth,
the Cheyennes were camped on the western side of
the middle part of Powder river. At this same time
the Crows were assembled on a branch of what now
is known as the Mizpah river, which flows into the
lower part of the Powder river. They were only two
or three days of travel from our camp. The Chey-
ennes organized a war party and went to fight the
Crows. As a result of the battle the Cheyennes
captured five Crow women and one boy about ten
years old. The women were made wives for their
captors. The boy was adopted as a son of one of
them. All of these captives stayed permanently there-
after with our people.

The Crow boy liked Eagle Feather on the Fore-
head, who then was only a little older than he. He
said, "This girl is my sister." She accepted him as
a brother. In later years the girl was married to
White Buffalo Shakes Off the Dust, and these became
my parents. The Crow boy came to manhood and
married a Cheyenne girl. Myself and my brothers
and sisters were taught to look upon him as our uncle,

2

BOYHOOD WILD DAYS

since he had been an adopted brother of my mother.
He was an admirable man, brave and capable. All of
the Cheyennes had a high regard for him. He knew
he was born a Crow, but he never showed any desire
to leave us for returning to them. He went, though,
to the Southern Cheyennes, following the great war-
rior Roman Nose. He died there, in Oklahoma, a
very old man.

This Crow-Cheyenne Indian man was a wonderful
traveler on foot. Even as a boy he could outwalk
and wear down most of the young men who journeyed
with him. His capabilities in this regard were so
noticeable that people said: "His legs must be made
of wood, since he never becomes tired." Then they
fixed upon him a name, Kum-mok-quiv-vi-ok-ta
Wooden Leg.

I also was a youthful wonder in the matter of
walking. By the time I was fifteen years old I could
go all day following in the footsteps of my uncle
Wooden Leg. I was tall and gaunt, and I grew yet
taller in young manhood. Friends began jokingly
to apply to me the name of this enduring uncle, who
then had become a middle-aged or elderly man. I
liked the name, I liked the man who bore it, and I
liked the honor of comparison with him. I told my
father I wished to be known as Wooden JLeg. It was
a common custom to pass down names to junior rela-

3

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

tires. My father told me that when the right time
came he would confer upon me the new name. The
time came when I was about seventeen years old.

The Cheyennes then were camped far up the
Tongue river, on a small creek branch at its western
side. It was in winter, there was deep snow and the
weather was cold. One morning we discovered that
twenty of our horses were missing. A blizzard was
whirling, so we could only get glimpses of the trail
of the thieves. We supposed them to be Crow In-
dians, of course. Thirteen Cheyennes, including
myself, mounted ponies and set off in pursuit. We
struggled all day through the blinding snowstorm.
We got the general direction of the trail, so we kept
on going during all of the succeeding night. None
of us slept. The following morning was clear, but
a cold north breeze was sifting the snow along as if
it were sand. We then were far up the valley of the
Little Bighorn river.

We saw two Indians driving a band of horses out
of the valley and upon the benches to the westward.
It was evident they were Crows urging our lost ani-
mals toward their camp west of the Bighorn. We ap-
proached them as rapidly as possible while conceal-
ing our presence. When we arrived on the benchland
we found the two men had stopped in a sheltered
gulch, had dismounted and were preparing to light

4

BOYHOOD WILD DAYS

their pipe for a smoke. We charged upon them.
One of them got to his horse and dashed away, but
Black Eagle's rifle brought him down dead. The
other one was surrounded and cut to death with
knives and hatchets. We got back all of our horses
and their two horses in addition.

My companions informed my father that I had
shown great bravery in rushing upon and helping to
dispatch our Crow enemy. My father gave a feast
to honor me, and at this feast he proclaimed: "Hence-
forth the name of this son of mine is Wooden Leg."

As a little boy I used to ride in a travels basket
when the tribe moved camp. Two long lodgepoles
were crossed over the shoulders or tied to the sides
of a horse. Thus they were dragged over the country.
Buffalo skins were used to stretch across between the
widely gaping poles behind the horse. Upon or into
these bagging skins were placed all of the family
property, in rawhide satchels or as separate loose
articles. The smaller children also rode there. I
have fond recollections of this kind of traveling.
Many an hour I have slept in that kind of gentle bed.
Roads were not needed for this kind of vehicle. A
travois can be taken anywhere a horse will go, and
there never is any jolting. The spring of the poles
and the skin takes up all of the shocks.

When I was six years old I asked my father: "Will

5

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

you give me a horse?" "Yes, you may have any
horse of mine that you want, but you must catch
him," he replied. He gave me a rawhide lariat rope.
He and my mother and some other older people
laughed about it, but I took the matter seriously.
With the lariat looped and coiled I went out among
the herd to search for horses belonging to my father.
I selected a small pony as being my choice. I maneu-
vered a long time before I could get the loop about
its neck. It struggled, but I hung on. When it
quieted down I followed carefully along the line, talk-
ing soothingly, until it allowed me to pat its neck.
After a while I got into its mouth and around its
lower jaw a loop of the rawhide, according to the old
Indian way of making a bridle. When it had calmed
after this new advance I began to make strokes upon
its back. Then I tucked the long coil into my belt,
the same as I had seen men do, and I climbed quickly
upon the little animal. It shied, and I fell off. But
I still had my rope, this uncoiling from my belt as
the pony moved away. I seized the tether and fol-
lowed again its guidance to the coveted mount.
More petting and soothing talk. Another attempt at
riding. Off again. Before making a third try I spent
a long time at the gentle taming procedures. Never-
theless, the pony shied and then bucked after I had
mounted it. But I grabbed its mane and stuck to

6

BOYHOOD WILD DAYS

my seat. Within a few minutes I had control. I rode
to my father's lodge.

"Yes, that is your pony, to keep, 5 ' he told me.

Bands of us boys went out at times on horseback
to hunt wolves. We had only the bows and arrows.
We killed many wolves with the arrows. My father
had given me a good bow and a supply of arrows when
I was nine or ten years old. We then were in the
Black Hills country.

The only trading post I ever saw during those years
was somewhere on the Geese river.* The trader
was known to us as Big Nosed White Man. I was
twelve years old the first time I went there, and I
never was at any other trading place during those
times. My father got me a rifle at this place. It
used powder and bullets and caps, not cartridges.
I learned how to make bullets for it.

I recollect very clearly one certain boyhood hunt-
ing experience. We were camped on Otter creek
about two miles from the present white man town of
Ashland, Montana, situated by the Tongue river. It
was midwinter, the snow was deep, the weather was
cold. My mother said to me: "We have no meat."

Another boy and I set off for a hunt. We were
about the same age, fifteen years old. We each had
on a shirt, leggings and moccasins, all of buckskin

North Platte river.

7

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

or other skin. The leggings had no seat in them, as
was the Indian way of clothing the lower limbs. We
had no head coverings nor any mittens for our hands.
Although we were accustomed to hardship, this was
a cold day for us. We waded and wallowed through
snow up to our knees and our thighs. I had my
muzzle-loading rifle and a bow and arrows. My com-
panion had only his bow and arrows.

A brush rabbit sat huddled under a shelter in a
brier patch. I fumbled out an arrow and placed it
upon the bow. My numb fingers scarcely could hold
the arrow alone, surely could not draw the bow to
a tensity enough for accurate shooting. The arrow
missed. I rubbed and slapped together my hands to
make them warm and mobile. Then I strung another
pointed missile and took a careful aim. This time
the rabbit's body was perforated. We laid it beside
our trail and went on in pursuit of more game.

We saw four buffaloes on the land where now
stand the Mennonite missionary houses. They also
saw us, and they ran away. They crossed Tongue
river on the ice, and soon afterward we got a view of
them clambering up the hillside beyond the river and
going on to the timbered benchland out of our sight.
No chance to shoot at them. We trudged on, though,
rubbing and pounding our hands and our bodies in
order to keep from freezing. We crossed the river

8

BOYHOOD WILD DAYS

on the ice and came out from the bordering timber
near the present-day home of my friend Joe Crow.

A deer jumped out and stood looking at us. The
first shot from my rifle brought it down. We rushed
to it and cut its throat. We hurriedly cut open the
body and jammed our hands inside, to get them warm.
Many a time I have done that same thing in other in-
stances. After this limbering of the fingers we
skinned the animal and cut off all of the meat from
the bones. The meat was wrapped into the skin, then
we set off on the back trail for the home camp. We
took turns at carrying the burden. As we plodded
along we paused to pick up the dead rabbit. About
cfark we arrived at our lodges, very tired but con-
tented.

On another winter hunt I went alone. My mother
said, "We have no meat." So I took a packhorse
and started out. The snow was deep. I led the
horse* as I walked, to keep warm. It was a long and
tiresome day. I was becoming discouraged when I
found the tracks of a buffalo. I followed them, and
finally I got into the right position and killed the ani-
mal with a rifle. It was hard work, me alone skin-
ning off the hide, cutting off the meat, rolling the
bundle and packing my horse. I got through with it,
though, and set out for the home lodge. My legs
carried me there, but it was after dark when I gave

9

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

the horse's leading rope to my mother. All of our
family laughed in joy, for we had plenty of meat.

But I was in great bodily distress. I was snow-
blind and the soles of my feet were frozen. The fire-
light dazzled my eyes to the utmost painf ulness. My
feet tortured me as they began to get warm in the
comfortable lodge. My mother sent for the doctor,
a medicine man named Red Bear. He got snow and
rubbed the soles of my feet. He took snowflakes be-
tween his lips, puffed flicks of them into my eyes,
and also he flipped snowflakes from his fingertips
into my eyes. Pretty soon I felt much better. Be-
fore he went away that night I was entirely cured. He
was a wise medicine man for sick people. Many of
our doctors in the old times made wonderful cures.

One time when I was on a hunting trip with others
in the Bighorn mountains I saw an eagle capture and
carry away a buffalo calf. The big bird took the
little animal far up to the top of a cliff, where there
was an eagle nest. We sat on our horses and
watched, to see what would happen. Ordinarily a
capturing eagle would drop its prey from high in the
air, so it would be killed by the fall to the ground.
But this did not happen in this case. As long as
we stayed there watching, we still could see the
buffalo calf standing up there on the cliff and wig-
gling its tail.

10

BOYHOOD WILD DAYS

A band of soldiers fought our Cheyennes back and
forth across a river one time when I was seven or
eight years old. It was the Lodgepole river, near
where it flows into Geese river. Members of our
Crazy Dog warrior society did all of our fighting that
day. The Elk warriors and the Fox warriors stayed
back with the body of our people who were looking
on. My father belonged to the Elk warriors, so he
was an onlooker. Roman Nose and High-Backed
Wolf were the specially brave Crazy Dogs on that
day.

The Shoshones, the Crows and the Pawnees were
the tribes we fought most during my time of grow-
ing up to manhood. The Pawnees, though, were too
far away from the regions where I spent a large part
of my early life the Black Hills, the Powder,
Tongue and Bighorn countries. So my own youthful
warrior experiences were mostly in combat against
the Crows and the Shoshones. One incident out of
many in this kind of warfare will show how it was
carried on.

A band of Shoshones came at night and stole some
of our horses. We were camped on a divide between
the upper part of Tongue river and the Little Big-
horn. Deep snow and winter weather. I then was
sixteen years old. I went with the party of Chey-
ennes who took the trail of the thieves. After travel*

11

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

ing all day and into the night we found a small camp
of Shoshones. Most of them, alarmed by their dogs,
had fled when we made our attack upon them. But
repeated shots kept coming from one certain lodge.
We concentrated our assault upon this lodge. Two
Cheyennes were killed and another one mortally
wounded before we could suppress this destructive
defense. White Wolf, eleven years older than I was
and yet living as my neighbor on Tongue river, was
the brave warrior who dealt the fatal blow to that
Shoshone. White Wolf crept along the ground and
into the lodge. He had in his right hand a six-
shooter. It was totally dark in there, and he
fumbled about the interior, seeking whomsoever he
might find. His gun bumped into somebody, and he
pulled the trigger. Later developments revealed
this was the only occupant of the lodge. The victim
was an old man. He was the only Shoshone we killed
in that fight, so far as we could learn. But we won
the battle and got back our horses.

We cut up the body of the old Shoshone man. We
cut off his hands, his feet, his head. We ripped open
his breast and his belly. I stood there and looked at
his heart and his liver. We tore down the lodge, built
a bonfire of it and its contents and piled the remnants
of the dead body upon this bonfire. We stayed there
until nothing was left but ashes and coals.

12

BOYHOOD WILD DATS

The Cheyennes during my youth associated much
with the Ogallala Sioux, the Arapahoes and the
Minneconjoux Sioux. Many Cheyennes learned the
speech of these other tribes, and in turn they had
many members who used ours. Most of my outside
mingling was with the Ogallalas. By the time I was
grown to full stature I could talk Sioux about as well
as I could talk Cheyenne. I still can use either lan-
iguage.

Forty army mules were brought into our camp on
Rosebud creek when I was about nine years old.
Three Cheyennes got them. These three were
Wrapped Braids, Old Bear and Pipe, a half-man-and-
ihalf -woman Cheyenne. They had chased away a lone
soldier herding the mules near a soldier fort on the
Bighorn river.* There were many attacks on this
and other forts by the Cheyennes and the Sioux, but
I was too young to take part in them.

Some Crow chiefs visited our camp on Rosebud
creek. The Crows were our enemies, but our people
treated these visitors well, as was the Indian custom
when enemies came peaceably. After a feast and a
smoke had been given them they told our chiefs that
the big chief of the soldiers at the Bighorn fort had
sent them to make peace with us and invite us to join
the Crows and the soldiers in warring against the

*Fort C. F. Smith.

13

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Sioux. They said the soldiers would give us lots of
presents if we would be friendly with them. All of
our camp moved over there. We were given some
blarikets, many boxes of crackers, and our women
received beads and other gifts. We then went back
to the Rosebud valley. I do not know what was done
about making peace, but I know that our young men
warriors kept on doing as they had been doing.

Another soldier fort that was being fought by the
Ogallala Sioux and some of the Cheyennes was on
what we called Buffalo creek.* Little Wolf was
then our most important old man chief. Crazy Head
was next in importance among us. Red Cloud was
the leading old man chief of the Ogallalas, with Crazy
Horse as their principal warrior chief. At a time
when our whole tribe were in camp on Rosebud creek,
just below the mouth of Lame Deer creek, and when
the Ogallalas were on Tongue river, just below where
Birney, Montana, is now situated, some of their
people came over the divide to us and asked the
Cheyennes to join them in a great attack on the Buf-
falo creek fort. Our chiefs considered the matter.
It was decided that whatever young men of us might
wish to go would be allowed to do so. Our camp
then was moved up Lame Deer creek to the base
of the divide, a short day's ride from the Ogallalas

* Fort Phil Kearny, on Little Piney creek.

14

BOYHOOD WELD DAYS

on Tongue river. Our great medicine man, Crazy
Mule, showed that he could cause bullets shot at him
to fall harmless at his feet. A hundred or more of
our young men said they could go to fight the soldiers'
if Crazy Mule would go with them. He agreed to
go. Our second chief, Crazy Head, led the band of
warriors. Little Wolf stayed in our camp.

My oldest brother, named Strong Wind Blowing,
was killed in that midwinter battle with the soldiers.*
He was about sixteen years old. Chief Little Wolf's
younger brother also was killed. These two were the
only Cheyennes who fell that day. I do not know
how many Sioux may have been cut down by the
soldier bullets, but I believe there were not many.
Our returning warriors said that more than a hun-
dred white men lost their lives, that Crazy Mule's
medicine caused them to fall down dead without need
for the Indians to kill them.** There was rejoicing
in our camp on account of the victory. But our
family and all relatives of the two dead Cheyennes
were in mourning. We wept and prayed for the
spirits of our lost ones.

Some time after that battle a half-breed Indian
came as a messenger from the soldier fort chief to
the Cheyennes. He said, "Come, friends, and let us

*Fort Phil Kearny fight, December, 1866.
** Suicidal acts, to avoid capture alive? T. B. M.

15

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

have peace." Little Wolf told us we ought to go, so
the whole tribe moved near to them. Little Wolf
and others of our chiefs had a council with the soldier
chiefs. The big chief of the soldiers said to Little
Wolf: "We are going away from this country. I
give to you all of these soldier houses. Your people
may live in them and learn how to cultivate the
land." A separate council of our chiefs was held.
They replied, "Yes, we will take the houses."

The Cheyennes were pleased. "That one will be
my house," some one of them would say, pointing
out a certain building. "I want that one," another
would claim, indicating some other structure. But
Little Wolf was not satisfied. He meditated and ex-
pressed his disapproval. "We can not live here,"
he urged. "It is impossible for Indians to live in the
same houses all the time and get enough buffalo and
other meat to sustain them." The women especially
implored him to change his mind. The question was
settled fully one morning when Little Wolf set fire
to the fort. He went from building to building,
carrying his firebrands. He did not cease his efforts
until the entire evidence of white man occupation was
in ashes.*

Little Wolf had been a big tribal chief, the most
influential one, for about two years before that time.

* Autumn, 1868.

16

BOYHOOD WILD DAYS

In his earlier manhood years he was for a long time
chosen over and over again as the leading chief of
the Elk warrior society. If during his time any
Cheyenne was looked upon as the bravest man of all,
he was the man. He never was afraid to speak the
truth. The people all believed him. He was a gentle
and charitable man, but if insulted to anger he was
likely to hurt somebody. In either disturbed or un-
disturbed mood everybody knew he meant just what
he said. He was my uncle by marriage, one of his
two wives being a sister of my father. He used to
tell me many thrilling stories, both at his lodge and
at my father's lodge. I recall one in particular,
when he had a hand-to-hand combat with a Shoshone.
Each had a sheathknife. They grappled and
wrestled and slashed one another. Finally Little
Wolf pinioned the arms of the Shoshone, threw him
to the ground, plunged upon him and stabbed him to
death. He gave me a great deal of good advice, both
as to warfare and as to how to carry myself uprightly
as a man among my own people. My conduct all
throughout my life has been influenced by his teach-
ings, more than by those of any other preceptor ex-
cept my own father.

I think my body grew more rapidly than did my
mind. By the time I was eighteen years old I was
among the tallest men of the tribe. I believe there

17

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

were but two who stood a little above me. Both of
these two were killed in the great battle against the
soldiers of Custer. Then remained myself and Tall
Bull as the two topmost in stature. We were the same
in height, were about the same age, but he was dis-
tinctly the heavier. We were close associates during
youth and manhood. He died at Lame Deer eight or
ten years ago. I do not know by any measurement
just what was my height when I was a young man.
I think I have grown shorter as old age has crept
upon me. My friend the white man doctor measures
me now at six feet two inches and weighs me at 235
pounds.

Our tribe during my growing years moved here
and there throughout the region between the Black
Hills and the Bighorn mountains and Bighorn river.
We never went north of the Elk river (the Yellow-
stone) except on two occasions when some of the
tribe went across for only a few days each time. The
places of crossing were just above and just below
the mouth of the Bighorn. Only one time was the
tribal camp circle made west of the Bighorn river.
We considered that country as belonging to the
Crows. Our war parties went there, but our camp-
ings were eastward from this stream. I do not know
why we crossed to that side on this occasion. We
had been having a series of ceremonial dances at

18

BOYHOOD WILD DAYS

successive camping places, and it may be that this
invasion of Crow land was intended as a challenge.
I was about fourteen years old, I believe. The
season was what in later life I have come to know
as June. It was the time for our usual early-summer
religious devotions. A medicine dance had been led
by White Horse, an old man, when we were just be-
low where Greasy Grass creek flows into the Little
Bighorn. We stayed there five sleeps. Then we
moved a few miles down the Little Bighorn, where
Crazy Mule led a buffalo dance. Camped there four
sleeps. Moved again down the Little Bighorn, this
time placing our camp circle on the exact spot where
it was located four years later, at the time we killed
all of the soldiers. Bear Sits Down gave a buffalo
dance at this place. Four sleeps here. The move-
ment was continued on down the Little Bighorn to
its mouth, where we crossed the Bighorn and set up
our camp circle on its west side. Here Brave Wolf
led a Great Medicine or Great Spirit dance, the cere-
mony known to the white people as a sun dance.
Four sleeps we stayed here, then we crossed back to
the east side of the Bighorn. That was the only
time our people as a tribe ever crossed that river.

19

II

Roomers in the Game Lands.

The first agency for our Northern Cheyennes that
I heard anything about was said to have been at
the mouth of the Cheyenne river, east of the Black
Hills. But I never was there. Afterward it was
located south of the Black Hills, near the present
Pine Ridge agency for the Ogallala Sioux. I have
been told the white people called this the Red Cloud
agency, but the Cheyennes knew it as the White
River agency. I was at this place two times, but
only for a few days in each instance. My father's
family was almost all of the time with other Chey-
ennes moving about over the country between the
Black Hills and the Bighorn river. Here we hunted
the game and the enemy Crows and Shoshones, and
here we lived in every way the life of the plains In-
dians of those times. It was not an idle existence.
We were busy much of the time, fighting our ene-
mies or gathering food and clothing and sheltering
skins.

As we were camped on lower Tongue river, when
I was about nine years old, one morning a herald
startled the people by his cry:

20

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

"Our horses all are gone!"

There followed a lively stir among the young men.
A party of them, mounted on a few horses that had
been overlooked by the raiders, hurried away on the
trail. A thin snow helped them. In the late after-
noon they caught up with the lost herd, apparently
abandoned. But after a search of the vicinity they
discovered that somebody was in a canyon cave there.
One of the Cheyennes crawled into the cave, in an
endeavor to verify the supposition. The verification
came in the form of an arrow that hit him in the
right eye. He quickly backed out. "Everybody
bring wood," the Cheyenne leader ordered. They
built a fire at the cave's opening. With blankets
they fanned the flames and the smoke into the hole.
The prisoners fanned outward and thrust sticks at
the fire heap to push it away. "Bring more wood,"
the leader called. The one-sided contest went on
until two Crow Indian men burst out from the cave
. almost suffocated and in desperation. The first one
out was beaten and stabbed to death by the sur-
rounding Cheyennes. The second one got past
them, sprang upon one of their horses and dashed
away. The Cheyennes pursued him. He happened
to mount a slow animal, so it was not long before
the chase developed into a beating by pony whip
handles. The Crow suddenly jerked his mount to a

21

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

standstill. At the same moment he flashed out his
sheathknife and made a vicious sidewise stab. The
blade buried itself in the breast of a Cheyenne, who
fell dead. The other Cheyennes rushed upon the
Crow. In a twinkling he had received many death
blows from various weapons. Somebody scalped
him, and then they cut off his feet, hands and head.
I was not with this party, but I was in the camp.
I heard all about it when they returned.

I saw the killing of another Crow, though, when
we were at this same camp on Tongue river. One
morning a Cheyenne horse was discovered dragging
a rawhide lariat looped about its lower jaw. This
was peculiarly the Crow way of bridling a horse, the
Sioux and Cheyennes ordinarily making a headstall
and mouth bit with the rope. Evidently some Crow
had captured our horse and it had escaped from
him during the night. There was a scurrying out to
inspect and count our herd. Apparently no others
were missing. The inquiry was directed then to-
ward an examination of the ground on the outskirts
of the area where the ponies were grazing. Three
strange horses had come from the hills to the west-
ward and gone away in a gallop. Another trail was
of human footprints, these imprinted as if the maker
of them had been lame and had been using a stick
for support. This trail led to a hillside cliff. There

22

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

under the shelter of an overhanging stone roof lay
a Crow Indian man apparently dead or sound asleep.
A Cheyenne leveled his rifle at close range and fired.
The Crow partly jumped up to a sitting attitude and
then fell back dead. Investigation showed him to
have a broken leg and a broken arm. The horse
he had captured was not well tamed, and it had
bucked him off. Perhaps it first had carried him
away from his companions, and perhaps either he
or the horse had made a noise that might have
alarmed the camp, whereupon the two other ma-
rauders had abandoned him and fled. As I now re-
flect back sixty years, I pity that unfortunate Crow
Indian. But at that time I felt no pity.

Nine Crows came and stole a band of our horses
at a time when we were camped far up the Tongue
river. I then was about sixteen years .old. I joined
the pursuing party of Cheyennes. We rode fast and
far, following the trail over hills and valleys toward
the Bighorn river. Some of our horses, including
mine, played out. Four of us turned to go back
while the others went on after the Crows. Porcupine
was the oldest of my returning group of four. Night
was coming upon us, so we stopped to sleep and to
rest our horses. During the night a sound of mov-
ing horses awakened us. We kept quiet, listening
and looking. Porcupine saw someone on horseback

23

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

about a hundred yards distant from us. He called
out a challenge: "Cheyenne? Crow?" The rider
lashed his mount to dash away. Porcupine firtd his
rifle in the direction of the fleeing prowler; We
learned nothing then of the outcome of this incident.
But several months later an Arapaho friend told us
of the ending. He had been hunting in this region,
and right where we had slept that night he found
the dead body of a Crow shot through from back
to front.

The others who had gone on after the Crows driv-
ing our herd caught up with them just below the old
soldier fort on the Bighorn river. My older brother
was with them, and he told me what happened there.
The horse band was across on the west side, and four
Crows were having a playful time at bathing in the
river. They were swimming* splashing, joking,
laughing. The dozen or more Gheyennes kept them-
selves hidden and hurriedly dressed themselves for
a fight while their horses rested a few minutes. Then
they burst into their war-songs and charged into the
water upon the surprised and defenseless bathers.
Three Crows were killed, one escaped. All of our
horses were recovered and three of theirs were added
to the band. The third Crow killed was an old man,
but he was very active. He dodged, jumped, dived.
But the Cheyennes had too many spears jabbing at

24

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

him and too many bullets flying toward him. My
brother's six-shooter put the fatal blow upon him.

The following year, when our tepees were assem-
bled on the west side of Tongue river just across
from the mouth of Hanging Woman creek, my father
and I went out one day to get an antelope. He was
about to shoot at one when the animal and some
others with it suddenly ran away. We were hidden,
so it seemed certain their fright came from someone
else. We crept and peeped. Pretty soon we saw a
group of Indian hunters on horseback.

"They are Crows," my father excitedly whispered.

Oh, what clever dodging we did! We got to our
horses, mounted them, kept them moving through
gullies and brushy spots until we reached the home
camp. A band of Cheyennes joined us to attack the
Crows. At a long distance off we followed them
until our horses tired out. By this time we were
at the upper branches of the Rosebud. We gave up
the chase. Nobody hurt.

Great herds of buffalo west of the Bighorn used
to draw the Cheyennes over into that Crow country
for the hunt. We camped on the eastern side, but
our hunting parties crossed the river and went as
far as Shooting at the Bank creek.* Each hunter led
one or more pack horses to carry the meat and skins

* Fryer creek.

25

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

taken. Many times I have swam the Bighorn or
some other river while holding in my teeth the lead-
ing rope of my riding pony. The pack horse rope
would be held in the same way or might be tied to
the tail of this leader. My clothing would be com-
pressed into a bundle and strapped to the back of
my head.

As we were camped on the east side of the Bighorn,
about two years before the great Custer battle, three
Crows were seen one day chasing antelope on our
side of the river. Report of their presence there was
brought to our camp. An old man herald mounted
his pony and went about the camp circle calling out:

"Crows are after our antelope herds. They may
steal our horses."

Six Cheyenne young men got their war clothing
packs, mounted their war ponies and set out to find
the bold Crows. I was not with them, but a special
friend of mine was one of the pursuing party and
he told me of their experience. They crossed the
Bighorn river just below where had been the soldier
fort. During the course of the pursuit they killed
two Crows. The third one was followed on to the
main Crow camp beside Shooting at the Bank creek.
The six Cheyennes lingered there to spy upon the
camp. The lingering was a little too extended, for
soon they found themselves engaged in a fight with

26

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

a much larger band of Crows. A Cheyenne wearing
a double tailed warbonnet had his horse shot down,
then the man himself was shot through the thigh,
this disability rendering him an easy mark for fatal
blows that soon fell upon him. A second Cheyenne
was killed by arrows or bullets. A third one met
death by the same means. The other three escaped
and made their way back to our side of the river and
to the home camp circle.

During this same summer the Crows made a raid
one night on our horse herd. Of course, when day-
light revealed the situation a war party of Cheyennes
went out for revengeful retaliation. I was not in
camp at this time, being on a hunting trip toward
the mountains, but Braid told me of what happened.
He was one of the band of avenging Cheyennes. The
Crows drove all of the horses to their camp on Shoot-
ing at the Bank creek. The Cheyennes hid them-
selves to watch for some opportunity for reprisal.
But the crafty Crows evidently discovered them or
had planned thus to entrap them. Notice came only
when a horde of them charged out for a fight. Two
of the Crows were killed and two Cheyennes also met
death. Braid's horse was shot down and he himself
was hit by a bullet that broke the bones in the lower
part of one of his legs. A companion on horseback
took 'Braid up behind him and the two got away into

27

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

safety. All of the Cheyennes then fled from the field.
Braid is yet alive, at the age of eighty-nine years, his
home being on the Rosebud side of this Tongue River
reservation. The white people call him Arthur
Brady.

About a year before these events just related a
big camp of Cheyennes was located on the Little Big-
horn a short distance below where Greasy Grass creek
empties into it. Fresh footprints of unknown horses
near the camp site aroused suspicion. Crows? Sho-
shones? People conjectured. An old man herald
rode about and notified everybody. That night all
of the horses were brought into the camp circle and
picketed among the lodges. Many watchful people
slept lightly or awakened from time to time and
peered out from the tepee flaps. Last Bull, asleep
in a small tepee with his wife, was startled by the
snorting of a mule he had picketed near by. The
mule snorted again, then a third time. Last Bull
saw a human form crawling along toward his mule.
The aroused man had no gun, so he crept under his
tepee wall and into the next one, there to borrow a
six-shooter from an old woman.

Fire Wolf saw the wriggling form cut the rope and
move off leading the mule. He bravely jumped out,
without any weapon, and seized the intruder. They
grappled and struggled. The stranger had a rifle.

28

STONE PEN (IN FOREGROUND) USED BY OLD-TIME INDIANS

AS LOOKOUT SHELTER FOR SENTINEL. THIS ONE IS ON A HILL

OVERLOOKING TONGUE RIVER, NEAR ASHLAND, MONTANA

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

During the scuffle it was discharged. The noise
aroused the camp. Cheyennes came running. Cries
rang out:

"Kill the Crow! Kill the Crow!"

The thief jerked out a sheathknife and stabbed
Fire Wolf again and again until the Cheyenne had
to let loose his hold. The freed man sprang to
his feet and ran, leaving the mule. A shot from Last
Bull's borrowed six-shooter brought him down. A
dozen Cheyennes closed in upon him and beat him
to death. Fire Wolf had some bad knife wounds,
but he recovered. The clothing, the bodily decora-
tions in general and the mode of hair dressing re-
vealed the dead Indian as being not a Crow. He
was a Flathead, perhaps a visitor among the Crows
or a member of a band visiting and hunting with
them.

A battle with the Shoshones was fought near the
headwaters of Powder river when I was about fifteen
years old (1873). A small band of Cheyennes had
their lodges a day's journey farther up the river from
the main body of die tribe. I was with the small
band. Four or five Shoshones came at night to our
little camp and stole our horses. We walked to the
main camp and told of the raid. All were for im-
mediate war against the whole Shoshone tribe. "Kill
all of the Shoshortes," was the common cry. The

29

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

main camp moved on up the river to our small en-
campment. There preparations were made for the
warfare. That very night thirty-two Shoshone war-
riors came into the view of our night sentinels. Evi-
dently the enemies had planned to wipe out our little
band, not knowing of the presence now of the whole
tribe.

The sentinels raised an alarm. Yet the Shoshones
did not offer to retreat until they found themselves
overwhelmed by a great body of our warriors. Their
horses were tired from the journey to our camp while
ours were just taken from their picket ropes. Per-
haps the raiders had been saying, "We shall kill all
of the Cheyennes here," but now they plunged their
horses into a long and deep canyon in their effort to
get away from us. The Cheyennes strung themselves
all along both sides of the canyon. Shooting was
kept up during the balance of the night and until
an hour or more after daylight. Two of the enemy
escaped. Thirty of them were killed in the canyon.
Seven of our Cheyennes also lost their lives. We
recovered the horses the four had stolen. This fight
was on a small creek flowing into the west side of
Powder river from the mountains near by.

White Bull was leading a hunting party one time
in the Elk river country. I was yet a small boy, so
I was not with them. Their scouts observed the dis-

30

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

tant herds of buffalo excited. Crows? Shoshones?
White soldiers? The Cheyennes hid themselves for
the night. In the early morning they found moc-
casin tracks by a creek. The moccasin trail led to
a Blackfeet camp. There the Cheyennes stirred up
a fight, but I believe nobody was killed. The great
warrior Roman Nose rode back and forth in front
of the Blackfeet and defied them. All of them were
said to have shot at him without a bullet or arrow
having harmed him. He had a powerful spirit or
medicine protection for himself. White Bull had
taught him this medicine.

Soldiers got after a small band of mingled Chey-
ennes and Sioux near the Black Hills one time. We
were running away when a Cheyenne was killed.
Two Sioux, another Cheyenne and myself went back
to recover his dead body. We got off our horses and
crept over a hill. We four took our dead companion
by his hands and feet and dragged him over the knoll.
There we rolled him into a blanket and we took the
four corners. Bullets were whistling all about us.
The blanket ripped and the body fell through the
opening. We again took hold of the hands and feet,
and in this way we got him to our horses and de-
livered him to his own people.

Several months before the great battle with Long
Hair (General Custer) and his soldiers, some Chey-

31

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

ennes coming from the agency on White river told
us that the white men were going to come out and
fight us. As parties went out for hunting, a lookout
was kept for these white enemies. My brother, my-
self and two other Cheyenne young men went on a
special scouting journey. We were camped then far
up the Powder river. At night we four slept out
in the open country. Early in the morning a fifth
Cheyenne came to us. "Soldiers are near us," he
said. We learned our horses were missing. The
soldiers had taken them. We all ran away afoot.
We scattered in different directions, except my
brother and me, who went together into a canyon.
Soldiers rode along on both sides of the canyon and
shot at us. We shot back at them, first using up our
bullets and then resorting to our arrows. We kept
creeping along the canyon. The soldiers gradually
dropped away. We were not harmed nor did we
know of our having harmed any of them. When
they left us we carefully worked our way on up the
canyon and over a hill toward our camp. Breathing
hard, almost exhausted, frightened to the verge of
collapse, we stopped for a few minutes of rest. Then
we hurried on. At the outskirts of the camp circle
we paused to send a warning wolf howl. The people
all gathered about us.

32

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

"What has happened?" they asked.

We told of our experience. At the same time the
other returned young men were giving the same kind
of information. The chiefs .ordered everybody to
pack up, and the camp was moved far on down the
Powder river. Some of us stayed back to watch the
soldiers. One night I saw them in their camp. Two
sentinels were walking back and forth near their
horses. I or any of my companions could have killed
either or both of them. But this would have en-
dangered our people, so we did nothing of that kind.
We stole back our horses, though. I got the same
horse they had taken from me a few nights before
this. Our camp kept on moving, and the soldiers
never found us on this hunt.

A great band of Southern Cheyennes came for a
visit to us in the Black Hills about two years before
the Custer battle on the Little Bighorn. All of us
joined together then for a long hunting journey to the
westward, to the Powder river, the Tongue and the
Little Bighorn. Many thousands of buffalo, deer,
antelope. Many skins, much meat, everybody happy
and prosperous and in health. On the Little Big-
horn river we had one day of Great Medicine thanks-
giving dancing just below the mouth of Greasy Grass
creek. Further down the valley the camp divided,

33

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

half of the people going northwestward to trouble the
Crows while the other half took a southwestward
course toward the country of the Shoshones.

I went to the Shoshone country. We did not see
any of those Indians, but a few of us saw their agency.
We saw also the soldier houses there. We kept clear
of the soldiers, and I think they never knew we were
in that region until after we had gone. We rounded
up and drove off a herd of white man cattle and killed
every beef. Game was scarce there, and we needed
the food.

We followed the mountains to upper Powder river,
where we joined again with the Cheyennes who had
separated from us on the Little Bighorn. After a
few days of feasting in the great combined camp,
there began to be departures in bands, bands, bands,
for return to the agency south of the Black Hills.
My small remaining group went to Otter creek, a
tributary of the lower Tongue river. Good hunting,
lots of game, on this creek. We followed it to its
head and moved on eastward to Powder river. We
went up that stream and diverted to the Little Pow-
der river. Here other Cheyennes came to us. Then
more arrived, and yet more. Again a great band of
us were roaming together.

An early autumn snowstorm in the upper Powder
river region put a check upon our great summer

34

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

movements. Separations came again. Indians went
back again to the agency for the winter. My band
moved over to the upper Tongue river. Here, only a
short distance down that stream from the present
white man town of Sheridan, Wyoming, buffalo in
great throngs were feeding. We had but to kill and
eat. As I now think back upon those days, it seems
that no people in the world ever were any richer than
we were. That is all anybody actually needs a good
shelter, plenty of food, plenty of fuel, plenty of good
water. We stayed all winter in this vicinity. My
father and his family never cared to live at the agency.

In every herd of buffaloes the adult males were
about equal in size and of the same dark brown color.
All buffalo cows likewise were about equal in size,
smaller than the bulls. The sucking calves were of
yellow color. At the age of one year they began to
change to the darker yellow and then to brown and
dark brown or black.

A white buffalo was killed by the Cheyennes on a
branch of the upper Powder river. That was when
I was a boy, about the time the soldier fort was there.
Many Cheyennes were after the animal, but Left
Handed Shooter killed it. Such animal was regarded
as a spirit being or a "medicine" animal. The as-
sembled Cheyennes stood back from this one in re-
spectful awe. Left Handed Shooter could not per-

35

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

suade anyone to help him in skinning it. He alone
took the hide from the whole body, separating off
the head and horns.

Four medicine women were called to Left Handed
Shooter's lodge. They pegged down the sacred skin,
dried it, scraped it with their elkhorn scrapers, did
all of the work of tanning it as a robe with the hair
left on it. An old medicine man then took it to his
lodge. There he painted it. He put upon the smooth
inside many black suns, many black moons, many
stripes, all in groups of four, the Indian sacred
number.

The painted skin then was hung upon a tall pole.
The horned head was put upon another pole near
by. All of the spirit men or medicine men came, all
of the people assembled. There were many long
prayers, to the Great Medicine above and to the spirits
below. Finally an old man announced:

"We give this tanned white robe to the Great Medi-
cine above. We give the head and horns to the spirits
below."

The robe was taken down from the pole and was
carefully folded. Medicine men and women then re-
spectfully carried it with the head and horns to the
top of a hill. There these revered objects were left
as gifts to the unseen rulers of the Indian world. The
meat of the animal was not considered as sacred. It

36

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

was eaten, the same as if it were any other buffalo
flesh.

After that time another white buffalo was seen and
chased by Cheyennes on Tongue river below the pres-
ent town of Sheridan, Wyoming. It was a fleet-footed
and long-winded animal. All of the Cheyenne horses
were exhausted in the chase. The coveted buffalo
escaped us, and I never heard of anyone having seen
it afterward.

I killed a buffalo cow having white hair covering
the upper and inner thighs, the back part of the belly,
the udder, and having white teats. My mother took
great care in tanning it and made of it a fine robe
for me. It either was taken or was burned by the
soldiers who drove us from our camp on the Powder
river a few months before the Custer soldiers came.

A black buffalo calf was killed by Exhausted Elk
far up the Tongue river. It being black instead of
the usual yellow color of the calves caused it to be
treated as a spirit animal. Four medicine women
tanned its skin, assembled medicine men held cere-
monies, the congregated people looked upon it with
veneration. The skin was painted and placed upon
a hill as a sacrifice gift to the Great Medicine, the
same as was done with the skin of the white buffalo.
Also, its flesh was eaten as if it were only an ordi-
nary buffalo calf.

37

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

A half -bull-half-cow buffalo was killed one time
by the Cheyennes. My father helped in the killing
of it. This animal was of enormous size. It was big,
fat, had a tall back, long horns, and its hump was
almost double the size of the average buffalo bull.
My father called friends to his lodge for a feast upon
this meat. It was not regarded as a medicine animal.
The heart and the liver were cut into big slices to be
eaten raw, as Indians usually ate these parts. Only
the old medicine men ate of these slices at my father's
feast.

There always was some danger mixed with the
pleasures of wild game hunting. I remember a Chey-
enne who was gored terribly by a buffalo bull. He
recovered, though. After that he became known as
Buffalo Not Kill Him. Walking Whirlwind, a young
man about my age, had his shoulder torn by a bear.
He also recovered.

A bear attacked three old Cheyenne women as they
were picking berries* on Tongue river. One of the
women was badly clawed. The two companions put
her upon a horse and took her to camp. She died just
after her arrival there. At that same time one of
our men was out hunting. He saw a bear, shot it
and killed it. As he approached the dead animal he
observed dried blood all about its nose and its cheeks.
This strange condition puzzled him. In skinning the

38

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

bear he carefully preserved the bloody muzzle. When
he arrived in camp with his meat packed in the skin
he learned of the killing of the old woman. Every-
body agreed this must have been the bear that killed
her.

Two Cheyenne men, Bear Dung and Sun Road,
went buffalo hunting from a camp of ours on the
lower Rosebud. As they were circling about a mill-
ing herd a bull sunk its horns into the belly of Bear
Dung's horse, ripped it open, lifted and tossed aside
the animal. Bear Dung went sprawling to the ground.
The bull immediately plunged at the man and gored
him to death. Sun Road hurried into camp and told
of the sad occurrence. The dead man's women rela-
tives took out a travois and brought him to camp.
He was a brother of Buffalo Hump, an old Cheyenne
now living on the Rosebud. Sun Road also is still
alive, his home being on the Rosebud side of our
reservation.

Competitive sports used to interest us. Horse
races, foot races, wrestling matches, target shooting
with guns or with arrows, tossing the arrows by hand,
swimming, jumping and other like contests were en-
tered upon. In the tribe such competition usually
was between men representing the three warrior
societies. These were the Elk warriors, the Crazy
Dog warriors and the Fox warriors. If any Sioux

39

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

tribe or big band camped jointly with us the matches
were between representative members of the two
tribes. Bets were made on every kind of contest.
The stakes were of guns, ammunition, bows and ar-
rows, blankets, horses, robes, jewelry, shirts, leggings,
moccasins, everything in the line of personal prop-
erty. The betting always was on even terms. Ar-
ticles were piled upon a blanket, matched articles in
apposition to each other. The winners took all and
shouted over the victory.

The Elk warriors, the society to which I belonged,
had the best runners. Our speediest man on foot
was named Apache. He was almost as tall as I was
and he was much heavier. He had remarkably big
thighs. One time at a double camping with the Ogal-
lalas on upper Powder river a foot race was arranged
between the two tribal champions. The Ogallala fast
man was tall and slender. His name was Black Legs.
The distance they were to run was about a mile, I
believe, although at that time we had no measure-
ments for distance. Four friends of each man ac-
companied the two racers to the starting point. A
revolver shot told them when to go. Near the finish
the Sioux fell exhausted. Our man Apache was very
tired, but he ran on to the end of the route. Of
course, the Cheyennes took all of the stakes, let out
a chorus of cheers and fired their guns into the air.

40

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

"The Cheyenne medicine broke his legs," the Sioux
said when their man collapsed.

The old Chief Little Wolf had been a great runner
when he was a young man. The longer the distance
the better it suited him. As the Cheyennes and the
Ogallalas were traveling together in moving camp
there was much bantering such as, "I think the Sioux
can travel faster than the Cheyennes can," or, "It
appears the Cheyennes must go a little more slowly
in order not to run away from their friends the
Sioux." Finally a young Sioux jokingly challenged
Little Wolf to a foot race.

"How," assented Little Wolf, "I'll run with you."
The caravan was stopped and arrangements were
made for the race. Little Wolf then was past fifty
years of age, while his Sioux challenger was just en-
tering young manhood. Nevertheless, the Cheyennes
backed their chief heavily. A great pile of bets were
placed upon the containing blankets. Four Chey-
ennes and four Sioux went with the two men to the
agreed starting point, which must have been three
or four miles away. At the crack of a revolver shot
the race began. Up to the last mile the young Sioux
kept well in the lead. Then he began to move more
slowly. It appeared Little Wolf never changed his
pace. So he closed up toward the leader. In the
last part of the kst mile he went ahead, still running

41

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

at what appeared to be his same rate while the other
man's speed continued to lessen. By a broad hundred
yards Little Wolf won the contest. Many of the
Sieux, even some who had lost bets, joined the Chey-
ennes in cheering for the old man.

A good wrestler and general strong man was Little
Hawk. He and Buffalo Hump and Brave Wolf made
up a playful raiding group in the camp one time
after a great hunting party had brought in lots of
buffalo beef. All about the camp circle there were
drying poles loaded with meat. The three young
men had not been fortunate in the chase, so they de-
cided to borrow from their friends. They went to
a certain tepee.

"We need meat," they announced. "Your drying
poles are too full, and we think our wants can be
supplied there. But Little Hawk wants to wrestle
for it. If anybody here can throw him we shall not
take any food from this lodge. 95

Nobody there wanted to accept this challenge.
The young men took some meat and went on to an-
other tepee. There they made the same kind of
announcement and proposition. There likewise all
of the men present feared to grapple with Little
Hawk, and there also the three joking robbers helped
themselves from the bountiful store. At the next

42

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

tepee the transaction was more complex. After some
exchange of talk the spokesman of the lodge said:
"Big Thigh is here. He says he will wrestle you."
The conditions of the match were agreed upon.
The two men stripped to their breechcloths. A group
of onlookers assembled. The group soon became a
great crowd. Big Thigh and Little Hawk appeared
equally confident. Both of them rushed into the
grapple. They tugged and shoved and tripped. The
advantage seemed to shift back and forth. The
throng of spectators whooped and danced. There
was some partisan cheering, but most of it was merely
the expression of delight at witnessing this tribal
championship battle. After several minutes of fierce
and continuous struggling Little Hawk began to
weaken and wilt. Big Thigh pinioned the arms of
his antagonist and bore him face downward to the
ground. The victor sat astride the back of the van-
quished and sprinkled handfuls of dirt upon him.
He also picked up a folded blanket lying near by and
used this as a soft club in pretense at beating into
complete submission the defeated Little Hawk.
Shouts of congratulation greeted the conqueror while
jeers were heaped upon the under dog and his two
confederates. Brave Wolf and Buffalo Hump, ridi-
culed to complete embarrassment and compelled to

43

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT COSTER

replace their looted buffalo meat, quickly took them-
selves into hiding*

Our target shooting was with rifles, revolvers and
arrows. For the arrow contests an erect wooden
figure of a man was the customary mark. Sometimes
the arrows were shot from the bow, sometimes they
were tossed by hand. Both accuracy and extent of
penetration counted in either form of this archery.
Shooting arrows for long distance was another test
of capability. Here a strong bow and a powerful
arm and hand were important elements for success.
In all of these games the regular rule allowed four
successive shots for each contestant. Fine points in
the manipulation of arrows were brought out in the
sidewise tossing of them at short distances, each toss
being made in attempt at the exact crossing of an-
other arrow thrown out by an opponent.

Most of our few rifles were muzzle loaders and our
revolvers usually were of the kind using caps and
moulded bullets. The target for practice with them
ordinarily was a black ring as broad as a large hand
marked upon an animal's dried shoulderblade or
upon a barked tree. Teams of three or more men
on each side often were arrayed against each other
for either the arrow or gun contests. Usually the
teams represented their respective warrior societies.
On many occasions, though, there were personal en-

44

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

gagements. In these there might be sought only
an honorable distinction or there might be betting
added as an incentive to achievement. An incident
of this character that was much talked about among
the Cheyennes came up at a time when we were
camped on the Powder river.

Jules Seminole brought a keg of whisky to the
camp. He got it at some white man trading post.
He was a southern half-breed married to one of our
Northern Cheyenne women and accounted as be-
longing to our tribe. One of our young men so-
licited him:

"Give me a drink of your whisky."

"No, but I'll bet a drink that I can beat you at
shooting," Seminole proposed. "What have you
to bet?"

The young man feared defeat. But he went can-
vassing here and there in an effort to find someone
who would take up Seminole's challenge. One after
another declined to contest. Finally, in jest rather
than in earnest, he put the case before an old medi-
cine man who was totally blind in one eye and partly
blind in the other.

'Til bet a good buffalo robe against the whole keg
of whisky that I can beat you at shooting," the old
man declared to Seminole.

Seminole evidently suspected some kind of trick.

45

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

He hesitated, but the urgings of the gathered crowd
carried him into acceptance of this counter propo-
sition.

A tree was barked and a black circle target drawn
upon this clean surface. Seminole shot first. He
had a cartridge rifle. The bullet imbedded itself
an inch or so below the black circle.

"Get me a pin," the old medicine man requested
of his young helper.

The pin was brought. The aged Cheyenne placed
it point forward upon his right palm. He held this
palm upward in front of his eyes. His squint wrinkles
deepened and his lips formed themselves into a
pucker. A sudden puff of his breath caused the pin
to vanish. Nobody knew what had become of it.

"Examine the target," the performer told them.

There it was, buried to its head just inside the cir-
cle. The people all wondered. The keg of whisky
was conceded to its new owner.

"I'll bet a horse against the whisky that you can't
do anything like that again," Seminole dared him.

"How," came instantly a responsive agreement.

The target was placed more distant, this at the
request of Seminole and by assent of his competitor.
Onlookers became involved in the betting. The
medicine man found many backers of his mysterious
powers. The half-breed adjusted his sights. He

46

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

took an unusually long and careful and steady aim.
"Bang!" His bullet struck within an inch of the
circle's center. His betting supporters were gleeful,
the opposition were in doubt. They awaited anx-
iously the next move of their champion.

"Bring me a claw of a redbird," he calmly ordered.

A dozen young men put themselves into his serv-
ice. They wanted to help him in drinking the
whisky. Within a minute he had the required object.

The redbird claw was placed upon the same up-
turned palm where had been the pin. "The target
is too far," came a complaint. Then: "Yes, I can
see it now." Puff! The claw was gone. Where?
Right into the central black spot of the black circle
target!

All comers had a drink of the whisky. A tin cup
was brought and the old medicine man dipped in
and passed out hot liquid mouthfuls to hundreds of
Cheyennes. Nobody got enough to make him drunk.
I spat out my mouthful. It did not taste good.

Red Haired Bear and his wife were traveling with
their lone lodge one time in the Black Hills. At their
noon camp he saw deer tracks and set off to follow
them. They led him up a dry coulee and into the
timber. There a strong and disagreeable odor was
wafted to him. He grasped his gun more firmly and
went on. Just then a big snake stood up and flashed

47

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT OJSTER

its tongue at him. Its head was above his head and
its body resembled a tree. It struck him one, two,
three, four times. It backed off and poised as if to
strike again. He was sickened, but he aimed his gun.

"Great Medicine, help me," he prayed.

"Yes, be brave and I will help you," a reply came
from above.

He bethought himself not to shoot at its head, since
the bullet might glance off harmless. He shot it
through the neck. The immense serpent threshed
about in terrible fashion, crushing bushes and tearing
up the earth. But it gradually quieted down, and
finally it lay dead.

The faint and terrified man took the back trail for
his camp. He had four gullies to cross. He got over
the first one without much difficulty. The second
one troubled him. Just before he started across the
third one he almost fainted. But he braced up and
went over it. He was dizzy and wobbling as he ap-
proached the fourth 'gully. "Be brave now," the
Great Medicine said to him. He had drd|>ped his
gun, but the encouraging words led him to pick it
up and go on. He staggered into and out of this
fourth obstacle. At the camp he told his wife of
what had occurred. She gave him a big dose of
gunpowder in water. Then he vomited, the vomit
having the same odor as had come from the snake.

48

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

A second dose of gunpowder brought up more of the
poison. A third treatment had the same effect, but
the odor now was almost gone* The fourth time he
took the mixture it stayed down in his stomach. Then
he felt all right. Red Haired Bear himself told me
of this experience. But he was not a reliable man,
so I never was sure whether it was true or not.

White Frog and Red Hat told a story of them
having an adventure of this same kind. They had
been to the trading post, where they had taken their
pack horses loaded with skins of beaver, buffalo and
antelope. While returning they arrived at Tongue
river just above the mouth of Crow creek. The water
was high. They dismounted, waded and led their
horses to an island. For crossing the next channel
they drove the horses ahead of them. The men were
naked and were holding their clothing over their
heads as they waded.

A monstrous snake rose up from the water and
threatened them. "It will eat up both of us/' they
exclaimed together. They prayed the Great Medi-
cine to pity them. At once there came a flood of
rain and a whirling wind. The wind picked up the
snake, dragged it along the water's surface for a short
distance, then lifted it into the air. It went up, up,
up, and soon it was gone from their sight. White
Frog and Red Hat agreed in their stories to us that

49

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

the snake was so big it looked like a floating log.
One Cheyenne who heard them said it might have
been a floating log that looked like a snake.

When Black Wolf went one time on a deer hunt
he saw two women sitting on the edge of a cliff. Both
women were beautiful in face and form. As they
sat there dangling their feet over the cliff they beck-
oned to him. He went to them and sat down beside
them. Pretty soon his nostrils perceived a strong
odor of deer. At the foot of the cliff, in a pool of
clear water, he saw a reflection of himself with two
deer beside him. "You are only two deer," he ac-
cused the women. At that they both jumped up.
They changed instantly into deer and went bounding
away into the timber.

A Southern Cheyenne out hunting saw a lovely
woman by a grove of trees, braiding her hair. She
looked at him and smiled. That was enough to draw
him straight to her. But when he took hold of her
he smelled her flesh.

"Oh, you deceitful deer!" he exclaimed.

She struggled then to free herself from him. But
he held firm. He tied her hands together and tied
her feet together. The deer woman declared:

"If you keep me thus tied you will die. If you let
me go loose you will live to be old and always will
be in good luck."

50

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

He decided to let her go free. She ran away as a
doe deer. When the man arrived at his home lodge
he was wildly insane. Medicine men were called.
He told them the story of his meeting the deer
woman. The medicine men prayed for him. His
right mind soon came back to him.

I had one time a strange adventure with a deer.
I shot it with my rifle, the bullet passing through it
from the rump forward. It ran away, I followed. I
shot again, this time the bullet going through its
chest, right to left. It turned around. Another shot
made another hole through its chest, left to right. A
fourth and a fifth bullet likewise was sent into and
out of its front body. It ran to a bushy grove. In
this grove I found it lying down. It was facing me.
It was not only alive, but it appeared not to have been
hurt at all. I hesitated and trembled a little as I
drew my six-shooter. At close range I aimed at the
middle of its forehead. The bullet brought blood
from the exact point where I had aimed. But the
deer appeared unharmed. I fired again, aiming at
the same spot, and a new trickle of blood flowed out.
Still the animal gave no sign of having been injured.
I stood there and thought about the case. I decided
to shoot once more an eighth effort. That is two
times the Indian sacred number four. I moved up
close and put my revolver's muzzle near the middle

51

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

of the ridge abo$e the deer's right eye. Holding my-
self steady, I pulled the trigger. Instantly afterward
the animal's body became limp. It was dead.

I do not entirely understand that. It may be I
was dreaming, but it does not seem like a dream.*
The Cheyennes consider all deer as having strong
spirit powers. Medicine men like to get their medi-
cine strength.

An old Cheyenne man and his wife told me a story,
when I was a boy, about a big stone that stands near
Antelope creek west of the Black Hills. They said
that at some time, long ago, some Indian girls were
at play there. They were poking a forked stick into
a hole, in search for beaver. They touched some-
thing, twisted, pulled, and brought out some hair
on the end of the stick. They supposed it to be the
hair of a wolf, a coyote or a porcupine. As they
talked of it, a bear of immense size came from the
hole. It chased the girls, capturing many of them
and tearing them to pieces. Two sisters escaped.
The bear followed them, going to their home tepee,
but it did not harm them. When night came, the
two girls crept out. They met two young men and

*In telling, all of these fanciful stories, Wooden Leg exhibited a
queer mingling of belief and doubt. They show an odd mental streak
in a man having a large stock of level-headed common sense, and whose
statements of fact as to genuine occurrences are worthy of full credit.
He is the kind of man who could^ot tell a lie without at once retract-
ing and correcting his misstatempt, if he knew it to be such. T. B.M.

52

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

told them of the frightful animal. "It can not be
killed by any shot in its head nor its heart nor in
other parts of its body," they told the two young men,
"but a shot through its foot, from the bottom up-
ward, will kill it." The young men considered the
case. Then they said to the two girls: "All of us
will hide here and wait."

When the bear awakened in the morning it learned
the two girls were gone. It moved about inside and
then outside, smelling of the ground. . Sniff, sniff,
sniff, sniff. It set off on the trail of the girls, fol-
lowing to the base of the great stone. There it sat
down upon its haunches and looked upward toward
the stone's top. Pretty soon it began climbing up
the steep side. A little distance up, its feet slipped
and it slid down. It tried again, this time going
higher, but it slid down again. Trials were made at
many places. But always the effort was a failure.

The two young men and the two girls were hidden
close by. One of the young men shot an arrow at
the bottom of the bear's foot as it was clambering up
the stone. When it went up again he shot another
arrow. On another effort of the bear a third arrow
was sent after it. The three arrows whizzed past
the bear and went on high into the air. They came
down without doing any damage. The fourth arrow
flashed past very close to ihe bearV left hind foot.

53

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

The animal slid down and ran away. The arrow
kept on going up, up, and it never came down.

I have seen many times the long upright marks
of the bear's claws on this great column of stone.
They are deep seams or furrows. It must have been
a monster of a bear. As far back as I can remember,
all of the Indians called this stone Bear Tepee or
Bear Lodge.*

An old Cheyenne man and I were traveling to-
gether one time past the Bear Tepee. He told me a
story about it. He said that a long time ago nobody
knew how long an Indian man journeying alone
chose to sleep at the base of this tall stone. A buf-
falo head was lying near him. He slept four nights.
During that time the Great Medicine took both him
and the buffalo head to the top of the high rock.
When the man awakened he could find no way to get
down. He was hungry and thirsty, but he had neither
food nor water. He was greatly distressed in mind.
He thought of his wife and his children. He wept
and prayed all day. At night, exhausted, he slept
again. During that night the Great Medicine gently
took him down again to his leaf bed on the ground.
The buffalo head was left at the top, near the edge.
That Indian man was said by some people to have

* Modern whites know this as "Devil's Tower."

54

ROAMERS IN THE GAME LANDS

been an Apache, others said he was a Shoshone, yet
others declared he was a Cheyenne.

I saw that buffalo head many times. The first
time was when I was with the old man and he told
me the story of it. He had a spyglass and we looked
through it. We could see plainly that it was the
head of a buffalo. I was a small boy at that time,
eight or ten years old. The Bear Tepee is four or
five hundred feet high, maybe higher, and its sides
are straight up and down. How else could a buffalo
head get up there except it be placed there by the
Great Medicine?

I have heard many old Cheyennes say that a long
time ago the Great Medicine used to come down to
the earth and talk with people. They said He had
camped and visited and smoked with the old-time
Cheyennes. Lots of times I have heard them talk
about Him having given to our people the Black
Hills and all of the gold there.

55

ra

Cheyenne Ways of Life.

The warrior societies were the foundation of tribal
government among the Cheyennes. That is, the
members of the warrior societies elected the chiefs
who governed the people. Every ten years the whole
tribe would get together for the special purpose of
choosing forty big chiefs. These forty then would
select four past chiefs, or "old men" chiefs, to serve
as supreme advisers to them and to the tribe. There
were not any hereditary chiefs among the Cheyennes.

The Elk warriors, the Crazy Dog warriors and the
Fox warriors were the ruling societies of the Northern
Cheyennes. Other like organizations had been in
existence before my time, but during all of the period
of my boyhood and manhood those three were the
only active ones in our northern branch of the double
tribe. Each warrior society had a leading war chief
and nine little war chiefs. So, there were many
men who might claim the title of chief. All together
there were seventy-four such officials, counting both
the tribal rulers and the warrior society rulers. There
were four "old men" tribal chiefs, forty tribaLbig
chiefs, three leading warrior chiefs and twenty-seven

56

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

little warrior chiefs. Ordinarily they were ranked or
held in respect in this order, the old men chiefs first,
the little warrior chiefs last.

The warrior chiefs had original authority only in
their societies, each in his own special organization.
By alternation, though, the tribal chiefs delegated
governmental power to the warrior chiefs. That is,
one group or another of the warrior chiefs and their
followers were called upon to serve as active subordi-
nate officials to carry out the orders promulgated by
the big chiefs. Such warrior society group, when on
this duty, were like the white man's sheriffs, police-
men, soldiers.

Promotion in public life followed the line from
private member of a warrior society to little chief of
the same, then to leading chief, then to big chief of
the tribe, finally to old man chief. Of course, all of
the tribal and old men chiefs were members of one
or another of the warrior societies. It often occurred
that in time of battle or in organized great hunting
expeditions a tribal big chief or an old man chief had,
during such time, the low standing of a mere private
person subordinate to the rule of the warrior chiefs.
And, in many instances some man might be at the
same time both a warrior chief and a tribal big chief
or even an old man chief. Little Wolf had this honor
put upon him. Even after he had become one of

57

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

the four old men chiefs he was kept in office as lead-
ing chief of the Elk warriors.

Four unmarried and virtuous young women were
chosen as honorary members of each warrior society.
If one of these entered into marriage or became un-
chaste she lost her membership and some other young
woman was chosen in her place. The young women
took no active part in the proceedings. They were
allowed merely to sit inside the lodge of assemblage,
there quietly looking on. At the society dances no
women were permitted to do any of the work. Two
little chiefs were appointed on each occasion to do
the cooking, to serve the feast or to perform any
other menial service necessary. The meetings or
dances were held in privately owned lodges of mem-
bers. The coverings were lifted or were removed so
that spectators might view the affair from the out-
side. The three different societies had the same
character of organization, and their social and mili-
tary operations were carried out on the same general
lines. A man could join only one of them.

I joined the Elk warriors when I was fourteen
years old. We were camped then at Antelope creek,
near the Black Hills. Their herald chiefs were going
about the camp circle calling, "All Elk warriors come
for a dance and a feast." They were gathering at a
large tepee made of two family lodges combined into

58

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

one. Left Handed Shooter, at that time leading chief
of the Elks, came to my father's lodge and said to me:
"We want you to join the Elk warriors."
Oh, how important I felt at receiving this invita-
tion ! I had been longing for it, waiting to be asked,
wishing I might grow older more rapidly in order
to get this honorable standing already held by my
father and my two older brothers. Seventy or more
Elks were dancing. Occasionally one fired a gun-
shot into the air. As they danced they were scraping
their "rattlesnake sticks," the special emblem of Elk
membership. Each of these sticks was made of hard
wood, in the form of a stubby rattlesnake seven or
eight inches long. On each stick was cut forty
notches. Another stick was used for scraping back
and forth along the notches. The combined opera-
tion of many instruments made a noise resembling
the rattlesnake's warning hum. Each member owned
his personal wooden stick, but there was one made
from an elk horn that was kept always by someone
as a trustee for the society. No payment nor gift was
necessary for admission into a warrior organization.
In the camp circles, in the tribal movings from
place to place, in the great tribal hunts, in the times
of Great Medicine or other general ceremonial dances
in fact, at all times of our lives some one or other
warrior society was authorized or commanded by the

59

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

tribal chiefs to take charge of the government. Ordi-
narily there was shift of the delegated authority by
regular rotation, but such change in regular order
was not always the case. The conclave of big chiefs
decided which society should have it. A society might
be appointed to act for one day, two days, three
days, any stated length of time, or they might be
appointed to serve during the continuation of some
certain event. At any time their appointment might
be revoked by the big chiefs and another society
named in their stead. Anyhow, some one or other
warrior band was on duty at all times to put into
execution the will of the big chiefs.

Perhaps at some time the Crazy Dog warriors
might be acting as the policemen at this particular
place of camping. Perhaps the four old men chiefs
might determine that a general buffalo hunt ought
to be entered upon. A herald on horseback was sent
about the camp to proclaim:

"All chiefs, open your ears and listen. Come to
the council lodge/'

There the matter was discussed. Perhaps it was
decided first to move camp farther down the river, or
up the river, or over to the next valley, or yet farther
away. The big chiefs then considered which warrior
society should conduct the camp movement. Perhaps
they agreed upon the Fox warriors. The leading

60

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

chief and the little chiefs of this society were notified
there at the council. The old man herald went out to
ride again about the camps and call out:

"All Cheyennea, open your ears and listen. To-
morrow morning we move to Tongue river. Have
your lodges down and yourselves and your horses
ready. The Fox warriors will lead us."

The next morning, as all were preparing for the
move, the Fox warriors assembled out forward in
the direction of the intended movement. The old
man herald instructed them: "You are the leaders
today. Make all of the people obey you. Make
them stay in their proper places. If any of them dis-
obey our ordinary rules of travel you may pony-whip
them, you may shoot their horses, you may kill their
dogs, you may break their guns or their bows, you
may punish them in any way that seems to you best,
except you are not allowed to kill any Cheyenne."
The Crazy Dog warriors, who had been policemen in
the camp, now went off duty and became merely
Cheyenne individuals. The leading chief of the Fox
warriors was the most important man of that day,
his little chiefs and their subordinate warriors were
his helpers. The tribal old men chiefs and big chiefs
led the camp movement, the Fox warrior band im-
mediately following them or sending their members
from time to time back along the caravan to keep

61

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

order. The big chiefs in front decided when it was
time to stop for a rest, when to move on again, when
and where to camp. The Fox soldiers transmitted
and enforced their orders. When the big chiefs chose
a spot for the camp their herald stationed himself
where he could tell all of the oncoming people,
"Camp here." If there were any disputes about
special location of lodges the Fox warriors settled the
disputes. In fact, though, there rarely were any such
disputes. Every camp circle of the Cheyennes was
arranged very much like their preceding circles.
Families or related families or clans set up their
lodges at all times in about the same location with
regard to each other. Always the horseshoe incom-
plete circle opened to the east. Always every indi-
vidual lodge in the camp likewise had its entrance
opening toward the east toward the rising sun.

To organize for the tribal buffalo hunt another
council was called. This or any other council usually
was held at and after darkness, by the light of a great
bonfire. The big chiefs regularly would tell the lead-
ing warrior chiefs, "We want four good and reliable
warriors to scout and discover the location of a buf-
falo herd." When the warrior leaders had nominated
these four the old man herald moved on horseback
through the camp calling out their names and the
duty put upon them. They went to the council and

62

CHEYENNE WAYS OP LIFE

there received their instructions through their war-
rior chiefs. They performed the scout duty accord-
ing to their orders nobody ever dared refuse to go
and upon their return a report was made to the
old man herald. Meantime, perhaps the big chiefs
decided that the Elk warriors should conduct the
buffalo hunting party. The herald went out and
proclaimed:

"All Cheyennes, open your ears and listen. Many
buffalo have been discovered by our scouts. Sharpen
your knives and your arrow points. See that your
guns are in good order. Have your riding horses and
your pack horses ready. Tomorrow morning we go.
The Elk warriors will lead and conduct the hunt."

The Elks then actually led the party. Nobody
but big chiefs were allowed to go in front of them.
The Elk warriors did all of the scouting for game
and watching for enemies while the party was on
the move. Any non-Elk intruder would be pony-
whipped, or worse. If any Elk himself disobeyed
the orders of his warrior chiefs this disobedient one
was punished, either by his fellow Elks upon their
own initiative or by command of the warrior chiefs.
The effort at all times was to carry out well what-
ever governmental task was placed upon the war-
riors, either on the hunts, at the camps, during a jour-
ney, in time of battle or under any conditions where

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

they were vested with authority. The three societies
competed against each other for efficiency in govern-
mental action as well as in all other affairs apper-
taining to respectable manhood. There was com-
petition also within each society, every ambitious
member trying to outdo his fellows in all worthy
activities.

The Fox warriors were leading a buffalo hunt one
time when I was about sixteen years old. We then
were on Crow creek, northeast of where Sheridan,
Wyoming, now stands. Last Bull was the leading
chief of the Fox soldiers. I was riding with three
other youths about my age.

"Oh, lots of buffalo!" one boy suddenly ex-
claimed.

We skirted around the band of hunters and got
forward. A Fox warrior saw us crowding ahead.
We also saw him, and we whirled our horses to go
back. Two or three of the Foxes followed us. We
scattered. I made a dash for Tongue river. It was
frozen solid. My horse slipped and slid, but I got
across. My pursuers stopped at the stream, but I
kept on going away from them. I did not know what
became of the other three boys. I was scared. My
heart was thumping, thumping, pounding my breast.
I expected to be pony-whipped, to have my horse

64

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

killed and my clothing torn to pieces. But it ap-
peared they never found out our identity.

Another time, about a year later, I got into the
same kind of trouble. This time we were moving
camp. The Crazy Dog warriors were in the lead
and conducting the movement. We were traveling
up the Tongue river, far up, above the present Sheri-
dan, and were about to go over the divide to the up-
per Powder river. Two other youths and myself
forgot the rules. We rode forward from our proper
place in the procession and went on out to a hilltop,
there to have a look over the country, as every In-
dian naturally likes to do.

Four Crazy Dog warriors were right after us. They
were riding fast. The other two boys got away, but
my pony played out on me. I had to stop and dis-
mount. I was frightened to distraction, but my mind
was made up to take bravely whatever punishment
they might inflict. Nevertheless, I became mentally
upset when four determined-looking Fox warrior po-
licemen dashed up to me.

"Do not whip me," I begged. "Kill my horse.
You may have all of my clothing. Here take my
gun and break it into pieces."

But after a talk among themselves they decided
not to do any of these penal acts. They scolded me

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

and said I was a foolish little boy. They asked my
name, and I told them. That was the last time I
ever flagrantly violated any of the laws of travel or
the hunt.

A guard line usually was thrown out by the war-
rior policemen when any buffalo herd was about to
be attacked. It was required that all of the hunters
remain behind this line until every preparation was
made and until the appointed managers gave the word
for a general advance. Of course, all were excited,
anxious to get at the game. Or, somebody might
think the policemen were too slow in completing the
preparatory steps. So, occasionally an impatient
hunter became obtrusive. This one was pretty sure
to bring upon himself a lashing with pony whip
thongs or a clubbing with the reversed heavy handle.
Finally would come the signal:

"Go!" Then the wild Indian chase was on.
Special warrior society hunts often were engaged
upon. For these only the members of the one par-
ticular organization were eligible. The societies
contested against each other in this regard, each try-
ing to beat the others in quantity of meat and skins
brought back to camp. Left Handed Shooter, lead-
ing chief of the Elk warriors, one time appointed me
as one of the four preliminary scouts to locate buffalo
for an exclusively Elk warrior hunt. We went out

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CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

at night. Winter weather, snow on the -ground.
Early in the morning we found a big herd. We re-
turned to camp and reported the discovery. An
old man herald called the Elk warriors and shouted
out information of our report and of the proposed
hunting party.

Old Bear, a big chief, got four or five other Chey-
ennes to slip out with him for a premature raid upon
the herd we had located for our Elk warrior adven-
ture. Little Wolf, at that time a little warrior chief,
took with him a band of Elks and followed the law-
breakers. Little Wolf opened the attack upon them
by sending an arrow that killed Old Bear's horse.
The Elk band pony-whipped all of the Old Bear
group, including the big chief himself, and made
them go back and stay in camp.

Feathered Wolf, an Elk warrior, one time at-
tached himself uninvited to a hunting party of Crazy
Dog warriors. He was leading two pack horses for
carrying the meat he expected to get. Some Crazy
Dogs warned him:

"You do not belong with us. You ought to go
back."

"But I am badly in need of meat," he pleaded.

Others came and urged him to return. They talked
of punishing him by whipping, but they did nothing.
They ended merely by telling him:

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

"You are crazy."

He mingled with the hunters and shot away all of
his arrows as they chased the herd. When the killing
was done he said:

"I killed one buffalo and helped in the killing of
another. You should give me plenty of meat.*'

"Yes, we'll give you some of it," different ones
promised him.

But nobody gave him any. He had to go back
to his home lodge with his two pack horses empty
and himself hungry.

At his lodge that evening he announced a smoking
circle. He stood out in front of his tepee and called
invitations to many members of the Crazy Dog so-
ciety. It was supposed he hoped thus to lead them
into making gifts of the appetizing food. But all
of the invited ones were busy at something else, so
he had to smoke alone and the drying poles beside
his tepee remained bare. His wife brought him the
smoking outfit. "Ah, kinnikinick," he chuckled con-
tentedly. He filled his pipe and smoked it to the
last ashes. Pretty soon he became pale, weak, sick,
then he vomited. His wife too had punished him.
She had given him the strongest tobacco she could
find in the camp.

Two certain men were observed one time to have
a big supply of buffalo meat hanging on the drying

68

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

poles by their tepees. There had been a special war-
rior society hunt that day, but these men did not be-
long to that society. Investigation showed they had
obtained their store from one of the animals killed
in a side coulee and overlooked by the lawful hunters.
The meat was taken from the two men, their guns
were broken, their pack saddles were cut up, their
lodges were torn down and burned.

Half a dozen Sioux pushed themselves one time
into an Elk warrior hunt. We always were friendly
with the Sioux, about the same as if they were Chey-
ennes, but these were out of place at this particular
time, and they knew it. Little Wolf led a party of
his Elks in whipping them away. Two or three of
the uninvited guests had blood running from head
cuts made by the heavy handles of the pony whips.
The Sioux the plains Indians generally had laws
and customs similar to ours, so it was considered
they had incurred our penalty. Often a disobedient
Cheyenne or an intruding hunter might gain im-
munity from a whipping by prompt confession of
guilt and by voluntary yielding of horses to be killed
or of other property to be destroyed.

The arrow was the preferred weapon when on a
tribal hunt in a buffalo herd or when a large party
were joined in the pursuit. Each rider shot arrow
after arrow into whatever animal was convenient to

69

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

him during the tumult of the running chase. When
it was ended he had one or more arrows in various
dead buffalo scattered over the area covered by the
flight of the herd. Every man kept his own arrows
always marked in some peculiar manner whereby they
could be identified, so when the field was reviewed
after the termination of the killing he could find out
which buffalo he had killed or had helped to kill. It
could be learned in each instance which arrow was
the fatal one and which were of little or no impor-
tance. Thus the claims to skin and meat could be
settled. In case of disagreement, the chiefs decided
the question. Gun bullets could not be distinguished
the one from the other, so the guns were used only
when one man was hunting alone or when a small
party of special friends hunted together. The guns
also had to have powder and lead and caps, which
we did not always have on hand. We could make
the arrows, or we often recovered them from the dead
animal.

Different tribes had different ways of making their
arrows. All arrows belonging to members of any
certain tribe were made according to a certain gen-
eral plan, so that by examination of any arrow it
could be learned to what tribe the owner belonged.
I used to be able to distinguish several different tribal
forms from one another. I can recollect now the dis-

70

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

tinguishing features of four of them: The Crow,
Sioux, Pawnee and Cheyenne.

The Crow butt end was whittled to a sharp ridge
and the notch was cut across this ridge, the same as
was done by the Cheyennes. Their metal or stone
point was a long triangle with its shortest side at
the arrow's shaft and with all three sides formed
in exactly straight lines, these features likewise the
same as in the Cheyenne arrows. Both of these had
the slender neck whittled from the notch end in a
long taper to the main shaft. But the distinction
was in the size of the shaft. The Crow shaft always
was fat and heavy. The Cheyenne shaft was slender.

The Sioux arrow had its notch extremity cut flat
across the end, in this respect differing from all of
the others, which were beveled on two sides to make
a sharp ridge for the notch. The neck of the Sioux
arrow was begun just below the notch by a circular
cut straight into the wood. Then, beginning further
down, the neck was shaved and tapered carefully up
to this straight cut. The Sioux metal or stone points
differed from all others. The form in general was
the same long triangle, but the short side at the ar-
row's shaft had a deep concave curve. Thus it had
two horns or barbs. Here was the particular brand
of the Sioux arrow.

The Pawnees had the flat butt end and its notch

71

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

the same as the Sioux. But the neck below the notch
was tapered like a Crow or a Cheyenne arrow. The
triangle points were also the same as on the Crow and
Cheyenne arrows, having no horns or barbs.

The Cheyenne arrow was distinguished from the
Pawnee by its notch cut into a sharp ridge instead
of into a flat surface butt end. Its tapering neck, its
sharp ridge butt end and its straight line point sep-
arated it from the Sioux. The diameter of the shaft
rendered it readily distinguishable from the Crow.
Moreover, the Cheyennes had one peculiar brand
that plainly indicated their arrows. This character-
istic was in the three wavy lines symmetrically spaced
around the shaft and painted all the way along it
from the feathers to the base of the hard point. These
special wavy stripes were designed as having a spirit
or medicine influence, to help in killing the buffalo.
Communication with the Great Medicine above us is
supposed to be made in wavy lines, not straight lines.

All Indian arrows I ever saw have three rows of

^

clipped feathers set symmetrically into slots in the
neck and upper shaft for a distance of five or six
inches. Between these feather rows are three straight
lines painted in color, usually red. The shaft may
be painted according to the fancy of the individual,
or according to his personal mode of branding it.
Old Cheyennes told -me that in past times all Chey-

72

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

enne arrows were painted blue* This was done by
way of respectful regard for the blue waters of a
certain highly revered lake in the Black Hills. Dur-
ing my days most arrow points were metal, although
a few men, especially the older men, continued to
make them of stone. All Indian arrows were of the
same length that is, every man made his own ar-
rows to measure exactly from his armpit to the tips
of his fingers.

Other weapons differed in the different tribes, and
sometimes a certain form of weapon was characteris-
tic of a certain tribe. The Sioux were the only In-
dians I knew who made regular use of the stone war-
club made by attaching an oval stone to the end of
a stick wrapped with rawhide. The Cheyennes rarely
carried one of these, while a Sioux appeared not
fully equipped unless he had one tucked into his belt.
Instead, the Cheyenne counterpart implement was
a hatchet or small ax. Sometimes the hatchet was
transformed into a fancy pipe for ceremonial smok-
ing. The metal head was drilled for the bowl and
a little round canal was burned through the central
length of the handle to serve as a pipestem.

Spears were used by the Cheyennes. The long
and slender points might be of metal or they might
be of stone or of bone, the rib of a buffalo or a bone
from some other animal serving well for such pur-

73

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

pose. The shaft was decorated, of course. Great
care often was taken in its coloring and general de-
sign. A regular feature of the plan was the eagle
feather attachments. One eagle feather having a
black tip dangled from the shaft near the hard point's
base. Two eagle feathers floated from a slender
buckskin thong tied to the upper end of the shaft.

The Sioux had knife sticks for fighting. These
had long shafts, the same as a spear. But instead of
the attached point at the end there were three blades
at the shaft's side and near its end. The blades were
in a row, close together, and were tied there by raw-
hide after having been set into a slot. They pro-
jected out three or four inches from the heavy shaft.
Sometimes the edges were straight, sometimes they
were pointed so that they resembled a section of sickle
bar for a mowing machine. Always they were kept
sharpened to a keen edge.

The earrings of an Indian often indicated his tribal
stock. A Cheyenne ear had but one piercing, only
one ring, and this ring was looped directly through
or close up to the ear. The Crow likewise had but
one piercing and only one ring or shell disc, but this
was suspended below the ear by an intervening
strand. The one piercing of the Sioux ear had a long
loop directly through it, and from the bottom of this
long loop dangled another loop of the same kind.

74

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

The Pawnees, Kiowas and Apaches had various pierc-
ings around the edge of the ear lobe, each piercing
having in it a small ring. The Arapahoes and the
Utes had ear decorations resembling the Cheyennes.

The Sioux wore necklaces, regularly in single
strands. The Crow necklaces ordinarily were in mul-
tiple strands. In the old times the Cheyennes did
not wear decorative necklaces, but later they adopted
the fashion to some extent. Mostly they designed
them in single strands, like the Sioux standard plan.
But the multiple curved loops of the Crows became
also fashionable among us. Eagle feathers stuck up
from the back hair of many a Sioux. The number of
such feathers worn by any one man was supposed to
denote the number of enemies he had killed. The
Cheyennes never adopted this custom.

All Indian lodges coming under my observation
were built on the same general lines. The conical
tepee was the standard form. Buffalo skin was the
standard material for covering the poles. The size
was regulated according to the quantity of skins avail-
able or according to the number of persons in the
household or according to some other special con-
dition. But there were tribal differences that enabled
an informed observer to distinguish camps or even to
classify a lone tepee.

The Sioux lodge was unusually tall and was nar-

75

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

row at the base. Its flap opening at the top was large
and long. The Pawnee lodge was the opposite of
the Sioux. It was remarkably low and broad, and
it had a short and small top flap opening. The Chey-
ennes and the Arapahoes had tepee plans alike, in
general form midway between the Sioux and the
Pawnee structure. The camp circle as a whole was
in all cases the same a horseshoe with its opening
to the east. All Indians had also the same custom
of placing each tepee with its entrance opening facing
the rising sun.

Inside the Cheyenne lodge an old woman slept just
at the left side of the entrance. Next past her, still
on the left side, the lodge's owner and his wife had
their bed. If the family was large the girls slept
near the father and mother while the boys were lo-
cated across on the opposite side of the earth floor.
Other adults, or whatever guests might be there,
were placed between the spaces allotted to the boys
and the girls or were put between the boys and the
right hand side of the entrance opening.

An old woman was an important part of every
household organization. This was the custom among
all of the plains Indians, especially in families where
girls were growing up. This old woman saw that
each occupant of the lodge used only his or her own
proper bed or place of waking repose. She com-

76

CHEYENNE WOMEN SHITTING UP A TEPEE

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

pelled each to keep his or her personal belongings
beside or at the head of the owner's assigned space.
She was at the same time the household policeman,
the night watchman and the drudge. Ordinarily her
badge of office was a club. She was conceded the
authority to use this club in enforcing the rules of
the lodge.

From fifteen to seventeen buffalo skins were united
to make a covering for the usual Cheyenne lodge.
When skins were plentiful not many lodges had less
than fifteen, regardless of the condition that some
of the tepees might have in each only a young mar-
ried couple, with perhaps an old woman or some
other one or two added people. On the other hand,
rarely was a lodge larger than seventeen skins, even
if twenty people were sheltered there. The larger
lodges had to have heavier poles, and, in moving,
these with the skins had to be transported by the
horses. Too much of such burden hindered the prog-
ress of the camp movement. Big lodges made pleas-
ant abodes, but they were troublesome in traveling.
The average and usual Cheyenne tepee was twelve to
fifteen feet in diameter across its earth floor. The
height from the floor's center to the tepee's peak was
the same as the diameter of the floor. That was
the regular standard architectural plan of a Cheyenne
lodge.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

The camp circle of the Northern Cheyenne tribe,
all assembled, enclosed a space about one-fourth or
one-third of a mile in diameter. It usually straddled
a small stream of water. If the location permitted, a
position was taken near to a larger stream into which
the small one emptied. Hunting parties or war
parties of men made themselves temporary night
shelters of willow wands stuck into the ground, bent
over and tied together for a dome roof, then covered
with robes. Or, such parties crept into caves or
sought the protection of heavy brush and thick foli-
age. The main camp never went into high moun-
tains during the winter. Too much snow. Mountain
campings were made during the summer season.

For moving the village, the usual time for leaving
the old site was about nine o'clock in the morning, I
believe. Not much if any preparation was made until
that morning came. The arrival at the next stop
would be about the middle of the afternoon. Long
before dark the whole village would be set up and
everybody would be at home, as if this had been the
dwelling place for many months. A thousand or
several thousand people might travel along that way
from day to day, actually moving their towns or cities,
taking all of their property, their wives and children
and old people, their horses and their dogs, every-

78

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

thing that made up a full home life. I think that is
better than the white people can do.

The women did all of the work of moving. They
took down the lodges, packed and attended to the"
transportation of them and all of the household ef-
fects, set up the lodges at the new location and put
all of the furnishing and personal baggage in the
right places in each lodge. The whole removal was
accomplished during a part of one day. In such trav-
eling we sometimes could outrun the soldiers, not-
withstanding they had only themselves and their
horses to care for. We often got our homes and all
of our people and their belongings across rivers where
the soldiers could not or did not follow us.

The women brought wood, cut it, kept the fires
burning, cooked the food, cared for the children, did
all of the home work. The men took care of the
horses, guarded against enemies and fought them
when necessary or when desirable, hunted the wild
game, brought in the meat and the skins. Ordinarily
a man did not toil at domestic tasks nor did a woman
hunt or fight. In emergency, though, either a man
or a woman might aid or take the place of the other.

Women used saddles for riding. They sat astride.
The saddles were made by them, the tree of elkhorn
or of hard wood, this wrapped with buffalo rawhide

79

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

sewed in place with shredded tendon sinew thread.
They also made pack saddles of the same material,
but having a different form. Old men likewise used
saddles. But young men always rode bareback. I
learned to use a saddle as a scout at Fort Keogh after
our Indian roaming and fighting days were past.
The white people say we mount a horse from the
wrong side, but I never changed that. They say too
that we do not know how to sharpen a knife. In
doing this we grind only one side of the knife's edge.
But we make them keen by that method. I see no
need for grinding both sides of a knife's blade.

I did not smoke during my boyhood. As a youth I
took occasional tastes, but the habit was not formed.
The Cheyennes of those days did not chew tobacco.
My father gave me a medicine pipe, for devotional or
ceremonial smoking, when I was seventeen years
old. He himself made it. The bowl was of red stone.
My mother made me a long buckskin pouch and
beaded it, this to contain my pipe and tobacco or,
the mixture that commonly is known as kinnikinick.
This mixture was half tobacco plug tobacco shaved
off and dried and half dried inner bark of the red
willow. In the South our people used some other
kind of bark, as our northern red willow did not grow
there.

80

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

Old-time pipes, before my days, were made of deer
leg bone. The bone was wrapped with rawhide strips
taken from the back of a buffalo's head. This wrap-
ping was partly for the spirit influence and partly to
keep the bone from breaking when heated by the
smoking.

We wore clothing, winter and summer. We had
light summer moccasins and heavy winter moccasins.
These always were cut low and had but one string,
whereas the Sioux moccasins were cut high, to lap
around the legs, and had two or more strings. One
time I saw some white children barefooted. I pitied
them, supposing them to be very poor. When I was
a small boy, a soldier at the fort on Buffalo creek gave
me a hat. Not long afterward I lost it. I was eighteen
years old before I got another one. It was not cus-
tomary for men, except old men, to wear any special
head covering. Women all went bareheaded or cov-
ered the head with a shawl or a blanket or a robe.

The buffalo hat was worn by old men. It was
made of buffalo rawhide. A broad oval segment of
the skin was used. An irregular circle was marked
on this surface, the drawing made to accord with the
shape of the head. From the center to the outer rim
of this circle several cuts were made. The cut flaps
were lifted to stand upright. This left the crown

81

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

wide open and its rim surrounded by the upstanding
diamond points. A leather thong under the chin held
the hat in place.

Our people learned from the Crows this way of
making hats. That is, we discovered the idea from
them. One time, when the Cheyennes were camped
on Tongue river above the present Sheridan, the
Crows stole some horses from us. As the Cheyennes
pursued them the Crows abandoned the horses and
fled. They lost two hats, and the Cheyennes found
these. They were used as patterns. My father used
to wear a cloth over his open-top hat, to shield his
head from the sun's heat. Every old man made his
own hat.

Buffalo robes from adult animals served as over-
coats for men or women. Buffalo calf or deer robes
were used by the children. Buffalo hair sometimes
was stuffed into the moccasins to keep the feet warm.
Grease paint was used on the face for the principal
purpose of shielding the skin from cold during the
winter and from sunburn during the summer. The
most common color was a brownish red, but personal
fancy might choose some other color or some com-
bination. Each warrior also had his particular mode
of painting himself, his spirit or medicine ornamenta-
tion, when preparing for battle or for death or for
social mingling.

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CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

All of the best clothing was taken along with him
when any warrior set out upon a search for conflict.
The articles were put into a special bag ordinarily
a beautifully beaded buckskin pouch, but perhaps
a rawhide one and this was slung at one side of his
horse. The bag also contained extra moccasins
beaded moccasins warbonnet, paints, a mirror, spe-
cial medicine objects, or anything else of this nature.
If a battle seemed about to occur, the warrior's first
important preparatory act was to jerk off all his ordi-
nary clothing. He then hurriedly got out his fine
garments. If he had time to do so he rebraided his
hair, painted his face in his own peculiar way, did
everything needful to prepare himself for presenting
his most splendid personal appearance. That is, he
got himself ready to die.

The idea of full dress in preparation for a battle
comes not from a belief that it will add to the fight-
ing ability. The preparation is for death, in case
that should be the result of the conflict. Every
Indian wants to look his best when he goes to meet
the Qjreat Spirit, so the dressing up is done whether
the imminent danger is an oncoming battle or a sick-
ness or injury at times of peace. Some Indian tribes
did not pay full attention to this matter, some of
them seeming not to care whether they took life risks
while naked or while only partly clad or shabbily

83

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

dad. But the Cheyennes and the Sioux were careful
in following out the procedure. When any of them
got into a fight not expected, with no opportunity
to dress properly, they usually ran away and avoided
close contact and its consequent risks. Enemy peo-
ple not understanding their ways might suppose
them to be cowards because of such flight. In fact,
these same apparent cowards might be the bravest
of the brave when they have on their good clothing
and feel that they may present a respectable appear-
ance if called from this life to meet the Great Spirit.
The naked fighters, among the Cheyennes and the
Sioux, were such warriors as specially fortified them-
selves by prayer and other devotional exercises.
They had special instruction from medicine men.
Their naked bodies were painted in peculiar ways,
each according to the direction of his favorite spiri-
tual guide, and each had his own medicine charms
given to him by this guide. A warrior thus made
ready for battle was supposed to be proof against the
weapons of the enemy. He placed himself in the
forefront of the attack or the defense. His thought
was: "I am so protected by my medicine that I do not
need to dress for death. No bullet nor arrow can
harm me now." On the other hand, a warrior not
made ready by special religious exercise and ap-
pliances had in his heart the thought: "A bullet or an

84

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

arrow may hit me and kill me. I must dress myself
so as to please the Great Spirit if I should go now to
Him."

Warbonnets were not worn by all warriors. In
fact, there were only aiew such distinguished men in
each warrior society of our tribe. It was expected
that one should be a student of the fighting art for
several years, or else that he be an unusually apt
learner, before he should put on the crown of eagle
feathers. He then did so upon his own initiative, or
perhaps because of the commendatory urgings of his
seniors. The act meant a profession of fully ac-
quired ability in warfare, a claim of special accom-
plishment in using cunning and common sense and
cool calculation coupled with the bravery attributed
to all warriors. The wearer was supposed never to
ask mercy in battle. If some immature young man
pretended to such high standing before it seemed to
his companions that he ought to do so, he was twitted
and shamed into awaiting his proper time. I first
put on my warbonnet when I was thirty-three years
old, fourteen years after I had quit the roaming life.
After a man had been accepted as a warbonnet man
he remained so throughout his lifetime. War chiefs
and tribal chiefs ordinarily were warbonnet men, but
this was not a requirement for these positions. Pure
modesty might keep the bravest and most capable

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

fighter from making the claim. Also, an admittedly
worthy wearer of the warbonnet might not be chosen
for or might refuse all official positions. The
feathered headpiece, then, was not a sign of public
office. It was a token of individual and personal feel-
ing as to his own fighting capabilities.

The warbonnet was made by the man who was to
wear it. His wife, mother or sister made only the
beaded band for the forehead. The man made also
whatever spirit charm objects he might use, or he got
a medicine man to make them for him. The women
made all of the war shirts, leggings, moccasins and
such clothing for the men. They also made all of
the common clothing for the men, for themselves,
and for all members of the household. The men
made their own pipes, weapons, lariat ropes and such
other articles as were used by men only.

Our hand mirrors were not used entirely for dress-
ing and painting. We made use of them for signal-
ing. Two persons who understood each other could
exchange thoughts in this way over long distances,
and even when they could not see each other. Some
kinds of such signals were understood by all of our
people. The little glass was often useful in ap-
proaching a camp when the traveler was. in doubt
whether it was an assemblage of his own people or
of an enemy or unknown people. In such cases,

86

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

flashes of inquiry and flashes of response, or lack
of responses, settled the doubt.

My father bought me a rifle and a six-shooter when
I was about sixteen years old. He got them at a
trader's store somewhere, when he went away on a
journey to the place. He exchanged buffalo robes
for them. The rifle was a muzzle loader, using pow-
der, bullet and caps. The six-shooter also was loaded
in the same way. Before that time I had learned to
shoot with other people's guns, but these were the
first ones I ever owned.

Some Indians used to cut off the rifle barrels, to
make them lighter for carrying on horseback. It was
supposed they would shoot just as well with the short
barrel. We never cut off the stock. The shortened
rifles were used in chasing buffalo on horseback.
Such weapons could be handled with one hand while
the horse was controlled with the other. They were
known to us as the "buffalo gun."

An old-time way of killing buffalo was by chasing
them in winter over a steep bluff into a deep snow-
drift. As they floundered there they could be speared
or beaten to death. A few times I was in that kind of
hunt. I heard old people tell of having used snow-
shoes to go after buffalo, but I never saw any of that
kind of hunting. We always stripped the meat from
the bones while butchering. The only bones we took

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

were the ribs. We sometimes used the legs as mauls
to break up the ribs. Oh, how good was buffalo rib
roast!

Four arrows was the regular allowance for the
killing of one buffalo during a horseback chase. The
need of more than that number was discreditable to
the skill of the bowman. Less than that was a matter
for boasting. If one killed a buffalo with only one
arrow, that was wonderful.

I have helped in the chasing of antelope bands
over a cliff. In the Black Hills was one special place
where we worked for our meat in that manner. The
creek near by was called Antelope creek. The first
time I went there an old man accompanied me. We
located ourselves in hiding near the base of the cliff,
with women and old people and children. Two young
men rounded up a herd and drove them over for us.
Many of them were killed or got broken legs. We
clubbed to death the injured ones.

We could get food, clothing and shelter from the
buffalo only. Saddles and harness, halters and bri-
dles, were made by using their rawhide. Stout thongs
for all purposes were cut from them. For a raw-
hide lariat rope, long strands were cut by following
around the outside of a buffalo rawhide. Three or
four of these strands were plaited together. Buffalo
hair, particularly from the neck of a bull, also was

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

spun into long strands and plaited to make a lariat.
The buffalo, then, was very important to us in our
mode of life. When any man went out specially hunt-
ing them he usually led two or three pack horses to
bring in his gathered supply of food and skins.

Fishing lines were made of horsehair. The hairs
were tied to make long threads, and these were
plaited together. We got metal hooks from the white
men traders. I have caught rabbits also with baited
hooks on the horsehair lines. I heard of eagles hav-
ing been captured in that way. But I never tried it
on an eagle. The Arapahoes used to be great eagle
hunters. Old men told me the Cheyennes in past
times had caught them from pits. The pit was cov-
ered with sticks, and a dead rabbit or some other
tempting flesh bait was placed upon the sticks over
the center of the pit. The hunter hid himself be-
low the bait. When an eagle alighted he seized its
legs, jerked it down, grabbed its head and wrung
its neck.

Twisting rabbits out of a hollow log, using a forked
stick to get the hold for pulling them, was a boy-
hood game. I set my muzzle loader rifle one time
on the upper Rosebud as a trap and caught a fox.
I have caught coyotes by that same means. The tak-
ing of the bait pulled the trigger and shot the animal.
A piece of fat meat was the best lure for them. I

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

have poisoned lots of wolves and got their pelts.
A good way is to put the poisoned meat upon the top
of a stick stuck into the snow, the meat being about
on a level with a wolf's body. The trapper goes back
next day and follows the trial of whatever wolf might
have gone away from the stick.

My first choice of meat was antelope. Buffalo
was a close second choice. Deer and elk came next.
It appeared, though, that no Indian ever got actually
turned against buffalo flesh. Beaver, rabbit, prairie
chickens, bear, fish and turtles are good. Otter or
wolf are not good, except wolf pups taste good if one
be hungry. Dogs are the same as wolves. An old
dog or an old wolf being boiled sickens me. Boiling
pups give out almost as bad an odor.

Salt was in use by the Cheyennes before I was
born. We used it when we had it, but we did not al-
ways have it. There was a stream known to the
Indians as Salt creek somewhere in the South. From
there the Southern Cheyennes used to bring to us
great chunks of salt. We sometimes smoked our
meat, partly to help in preserving it and partly be-
cause the flavor was an agreeable change at times.

Steel and flint was the usual source of fire.
Neither my older brother nor myself had these, but
my father had a good pair. We used to borrow from

90

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

him. In the usual personal traveling pack was a
small box or bag containing steel, flint and kindling.
Dried buffalo dung, usually known as "buffalo
chips," makes good kindling when it is pulverized.
Spark, kindle, blow, spark, kindle, blow, until a
small blaze is started. Then put on twigs or grass,
then small wood, then large wood. Buffalo chips
in their natural chunks made good wood.

The Crows used to have a custom of making a pile
of buffalo chips to be kicked to pieces by whoever
might come to camp pretending to bear an important
message. This was by way of oath that he would
tell the truth. There was no such custom among the
Cheyennes. Our way was to build a bonfire and
call the chiefs. No oath of any kind was taken. It
was supposed the truth would be told without special
promise. Perhaps that was not the case with the
Crows.

I have heard of another Crow custom different
from the Cheyenne way. I have been told that when
a Crow stole a horse or found any article it was ex-
pected of him that he give it away. It was considered
not right for him to keep it. A Cheyenne might pre-
sent a stolen horse or a found article to a relative or
a friend, but it was regarded as entirely fair and
proper for him to keep it for himself if he chose to

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

do so. Ordinarily he kept it I admire the old Crow
way of acting in that respect. Such conduct makes
a good and unselfish heart.

The Sioux often buried their dead on scaffolds,
but I never saw any Cheyenne burials in that way.
Sometimes our dead were put upon platforms on tree
branches. Mostly, though, they were placed in small
hillside rocky caves if these were convenient. In
later times, and in many instances at the present day
on our reservation, the dead body was deposited on
the surface of the ground on a rocky hill or in some
place out of the way of usual travel. The body was
well wrapped in blankets or skins, and it may or may
not have been put into a wooden box. In either case
a heap of stones was piled over it to shield it from
animals.

Our women used to cut their legs and arms, usually
in crosswise slashes, as an act of mourning. Some
of them the older ones yet do this. A married
woman cut off her hair, in ragged form, if her hus-
band died. In mourning for other relatives the hair
might be worn loose and uncombed for a long or a
short time. Men did not cut the flesh in mourning.
They let loose the hair or cut off their braids. Men
who had lost relatives often cut off also the manes
and the tails of their horses as a sign of mourning.

There was no marriage ceremony among the Chey-

92

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

ennes. Such union was mainly a simple agreement
between the two principal parties. In far back old
times young men purchased their brides, but during
my days this was not the custom among Us. In our
later practice presents might be given by the young
man, these ordinarily to the girl's brothers. But
these were given after the marriage, as an indication
of good will, not as a purchase price. Reciprocal
gifts often were made to the newly married couple.
The older way of entering upon the preliminary
steps toward marriage was for the young man first to
consult his own father. An old woman relative was
enlisted as an emissary. "Tell the girl's father I will
give him four horses (or some other number of
horses) for his daughter as a wife for my son." The
old woman went and negotiated with the father and
his daughter. If the offer or some modification of it
were agreed upon, the initiative father gathered to-
gether or borrowed from relatives such horses or
blankets or other gifts as were required. These were
taken to the lodge of the girl's father. The pros-
pective bride was put upon a blanket. Her personal
belongings were put there with her or were wrapped
in another package. She and her property were
carried to the lodge of the young man's father and
placed inside, the carriers leaving her there and going
elsewhere. The young man seized her as his wife.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

All of the supposed purchase gifts often were be-
stowed upon the young couple. Relatives of the two
parties exchanged presents and compliments. The
old woman emissary got a horse. Gifts all around
were made in accordance with the ability of the peo-
ple interested and in accordance with the degree of
satisfaction felt because of the event.

Our most common custom was for the young man
to do all of his own managing of the affair. In the
night time he crept stealthily to the vicinity of the
loved one's parental tepee. He looked and listened
listened long and intently. He crept closer, still
closer, until he was at the outside wall of that side
of the lodge where slept the one he was seeking. He
whispered, perhaps had to whisper more loudly, to
awaken her. They conversed in whispers, possibly
the first time they ever had spoken directly to each
other, although all their lives they had lived in the
same camps.

"Will will will you marry me?"

"Y-y-yes."

She crept out and joined him. They went together
to the lodge of the young man's brother or sister or
to a place where dwelt elder relatives of his.

The next morning two intruders were discovered
there, a young man and his young wife. The dis-

94

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

covery was announced, all parties interested were in-
formed. Not often was the information displeasing.
Ordinarily all concerned were contented and mani-
fested their contentment in the usual exchange of
gifts.

The newly married couple lived temporarily at the
lodge of relatives on one or the other side, prefer-
ably with a brother or a sister of the husband. This
was but a fleeting residence. The first important duty
of the husband was to get skins for a tepee, either by
borrowing them or by taking them in the hunt. Then
it was the duty of the young wife to tan and sew to-
gether these skins and set up a home lodge.

Plural wives were kept by many of the old Chey-
ennes. The one family lodge sheltered the entire
combined family. Commonly the two or more wives
were born sisters. This condition checked or pre-
vented the jealous quarreling likely to occur were
they from different families. Two wives ordinarily
was the limit. But in my time I knew two different
men who each had three wives living with him. In
each of these instances the three wives were sisters.
The two men were named Red Arms and Plum Tree.
Both of them and their entire families were in the
Cheyenne camp on the Little Bighorn when we had
the great battle there. Plum Tree was the father of

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Sun Bear and Two Feathers. Both of these sons of
his fought the soldiers at that time, and Two Feathers
is yet living here on the Tongue river.

Captive women from other tribes were made wives
of our men. There were many of such among us.
Spotted Hawk's mother was a Ute woman captured
by our people when she was a small girl. The old
Chief Dull Knife, or Rabbit, or Morning Star, had as
his wife a Pawnee captive woman. At the time she
came to us, two other Pawnee women were brought
and were taken into marriage for bringing up Chey-
enne children. Crow women stolen long ago by our
warriors in raids were mothers of some important
Cheyennes, including Big Foot, Big Thigh and the
Chiefs Crazy Head and Little Horse. I do not know
of any Cheyenne women having been captured from
us by the Crows. The Pawnees and the Shoshones
got away with some of them.

An unfaithful wife did not incur any public
penalty, according to the laws of the Cheyennes and
the Sioux. Her husband might inflict some penalty.
That was permissible, but he was not conceded the
right to kill her. I knew one man who cut a great
gash in his wife's forehead because of her going with
another man. Ordinarily, though, the loss of his
wife's affection was looked upon as a joke on the
husband, and he kept quiet about it or pretended that

96

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

he did not bewail the loss. The Arapahoes had a
tribal punishment for a wife's unfaithfulness. They
cut off the end of the woman's nose. Then any
future observer might have notice of her frailty when
contemplating the taking of her as his wife.

Fighting between Cheyennes, either men or
women, was forbidden by the tribal laws. In case
of a fight some chief near at hand would call out:
"Warriors, separate these fighters and whip them."
The warrior policemen then on duty would respond
to the call. A band of them would give such punish-
ment as seemed to them fitting. If the fighters re-
newed their strife they might have punishment added,
might have their tepees torn down, their horses
killed, property damage done to them in some other
way, any suitable and sufficient punishment except,
no policeman warrior nor anyone else lawfully could
kill a Cheyenne.

Pony whips, either the lashes or the heavy stick
handles, were the customary attacking weapons in a
personal fight. Cheyennes did not use fists as the
white people do. Not often did any two women fight.
If they did, they merely scratched and pulled hair.
It was more of a comic show than an alarming sight
to see two women clawing each other. I never
heard of any Cheyenne woman killing another nor
maliciously killing a man. Nor did the men kill

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women. I used to hear old people talk about a Chey-
enne named Wounded Elk who had beaten his wife
and then shot her, killing her. I never heard of any
other like case. That incident happened before I
was born.

Suicides were not uncommon among us. Men shot
themselves, women hung themselves. Foolish ones
yet do such acts. Several years ago my neighbor and
friend Whirlwind shot himself to death. Five or six
years ago a woman hanged herself at Lame Deer.
Many of these sad occurrences, particularly among the
women, have come to pass during my lifetime.

A sister of Bobtail Horse and Hollow Wood hung
herself when I was yet a small boy and our people
were camped on a branch of the Tongue river. Her
mother had scolded and threatened her, but had not
struck her, as the striking of any child was not cus-
tomary among the Cheyennes. But the girl was
ashamed and crestfallen because of the scolding.
She brooded a while, then she disappeared. Search-
ers failed to find her. Two years later, a Cheyenne
young man hunting deer in that vicinity found the
remains of her body suspended by the neck from a
tree limb. Several years before that time another
young woman had done this same act near there on
this same stream. From this first incident, and con-
firmed by the later one, the creek got a permanent

98

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

name. It became known as Hanging Woman creek.
It flows into Tongue river from the east side, just
above the present white man village of Birney,
Montana.

As we were in camp one time on the Rosebud, be-
low Lame Deer creek, another boy and I went ram-
bling afoot among the timber by the stream. We
suddenly came upon a woman dangling and stran-
gling. I had no knife. The other boy had one.

"Cut the rope," I urged him.

He already was about to do this. We let the
woman down upon the ground. I ran to the creek
near by, got a mouthful of water, hurried back and
squirted the water into her face. I stayed beside her
while my companion rushed into the camp to tell her
people. A band of women came, bringing a blanket.
They put the disabled one upon the blanket and
carried her to her home lodge. A medicine man was
called. The next day I saw the woman. She gave
no indication then of having had any unusual ex-
perience.

A widow Cheyenne woman was living in our camp
at a time when we had stopped on the east side of the
upper Little Bighorn river. Her husband had been
killed three or four years before then, in the battle
where Cheyennes and Sioux hacLwon a great victory
over the soidieis. (Fort Phil Kjterny, 1866.) From

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

this Little Bighorn camp my older brother and an-
other boy and myself went out riding. I then was
about twelve years old. Ahead of us, on a branch-
ing creek, we saw a woman walking rapidly afoot.
She had a blanket over her head and shoulders.
She turned into a thickly wooded gulch beside the
creek and disappeared into the timber. We wondered
a little at her strange actions, but we felt it not proper
to follow her. Pretty soon three other boys came
galloping their horses.

"Did you see any lone woman around here?" they
asked anxiously.

"Yes, she went there," and we indicated the
wooded gulch.

My two companions followed them. I went to a
plum patch. As I stood there eating plums I saw a
man and a woman hurrying up toward the gulch.
Both of them were crying. I followed them.

The five boys were trying to revive the woman be-
ing sought, who had hanged herself. But she now
was dead. The body was rolled into the^blanket she
had been wearing and she was taken into camp.

This widow had been dependent upon friends for
her support since her husband's death. She had a
daughter eight or nine years old. One day the young
widow asked her mother for a certain fine robe. The
mother refused. The request was urged. Still the

100

CHEYENNE WAYS OP LIFE

mother for some reason said, "No." The aggrieved
and disconsolate young woman was so downcast by
this apparent coldness of her mother that she went
out and hanged herself.

My mother's sister hung herself in their family
lodge when we were in camp one time on Powder
river. I was nine years old. Our family lodge was
right beside the one where dwelt this aunt of mine.
My mother heard the noise of the struggling and
strangling. The sister's tepee entrance flap was tied
shut, but my mother burst through it. She found
my aunt suspended by a rawhide rope tied high upon
a pole of the lodge. She hastily cut the rope and
cut it again from her sister's neck. White Bull, a
medicine man, was called. His medicine then was
the tusks of a bear. He held these over and around
my aunt while he got down upon his hands and knees
and grunted like a bear. He kept this up until she
suddenly had a hard coughing spell and brought up
a chunk of something that had been choking her.
She soon stood up and was all right. White Bull was
a good medicine man. He saved the lives of lots of
Cheyennes.

Only one wildly insane Cheyenne person did I ever
see. As I was out on a hill beside the camp one day
I heard a woman screaming. I looked in the direc-
tion of the sound and saw a woman outside a lodge

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

charging about here and there and tearing off her
clothing. People were running to the scene. I
hastened down there. A chief called out:

"Warriors, come."

Warrior policemen rushed there from all parts of
the camp. They seized the woman and held her while
medicine men were summoned. I stood there among
the surrounding crowd and watched the proceedings.
Finally the medicine men caused her to gag and
choke and cough out the tail of a deer. At once she
came into her right mind. Our medicine men always
could cure that kind of sickness.

This woman had another attack of this same kind
some months after that first one. The medicine men
gave her the same kind of treatment. Again she spat
out the tail of a deer and instantly became sane. Not
long after that she got married. She had a third
attack a month or so after the marriage. Her hus-
band did .not send for any medicine man this time.
He himself tied her and whipped her. He beat and
lashed his wife until she spat out a deer tail. This
cured her right away. I never heard of her going in-
sane after that time.

The killing of any Cheyenne was the most serious
offense against our tribal laws. The punishment was
prompt. A council of the big chiefs and the warrior
chiefs was called at once. The case was inquired

102

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

into. If guilt was evident, the offender began with-
out delay the payment of his penalty. Sometimes ac-
tion was taken without the council being assembled,
the situation being so clear that unanimity of feeling
was expressed either for or against the person charged
with the crime. The defendant was not permitted to
be present at the trial council. When the decision
was rendered he was notified at his lodge by the war-
rior policemen. If found guilty they proceeded at
once to put into effect the regular fixed and standard
punishment.

"Get ready to go/' they ordered him.

Banishment for four years was the main penalty.
It had to be entered upon that same day. If the
offender protested or dallied, he might suffer the addi-
tional infliction of being whipped, of having his
horses killed or his tepee destroyed. If he acceded
willingly, he was allowed to take along his posses-
sions. In any case, he had to go. His wife or his
children might go with him or remain with the tribe,
as they might choose. If he had a medicine pipe, that
sacred object regularly possessed by every adult male
Cheyenne, his very first act of entrance upon the
banishment was the smashing to fragments of this
most revered talisman. Everything else he owned
he might take along with him. But he must not have
the devotional medicine pipe.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Two or three miles from the main camp was con-
sidered a sufficient distance for the banished one.
Relatives might visit him there or take food to him,
but it was not allowable for them to remain long,
and in no case should they remain after sundown.
The chief spiritual guide or medicine man of the
tribe withdrew the sacred protection, so the outlawed
one was altogether out of touch with the Great Medi-
cine. He kept watch of the camp movements, and he
could follow at a distance with his lone tepee and set
it up at a distance within sight of but out of con-
venient hearing of the new camp location. He hunted
alone. If in the course of his hunting he accidentally
came close to other Cheyennes, it was expected he
should hasten away from them. The warrior police-
men would whip him, or they might kill him, if he
should offer to intrude himself. It was not permis-
sible for anyone to speak to him nor in any other
manner extend to him a friendly recognition. He was
entirely avoided or, it was required of him that he
entirely avoid all other Cheyennes. Day after day,
month after month, summer and winter, fair or foul
weather, for four complete years he lived altogether
the life of a scorned hermit. He was conceded the
right to join some other tribe, but he did not do this.
The great obstacle was, the people of the other tribe
surely would ask: "Whence came you, and why?' 5

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CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

When the four years ended, the absolved man came
back and took temporary abode in the lodge of rel-
atives. Soon he set up his own lodge* He was ad-
mitted then to the principal rights, privileges and
immunities of a recognized member of the tribe. But
to this rehabilitation there were some important ex-
ceptions. For one, he never thereafter was allowed
to have a medicine pipe nor to take part in any smok-
ing circle. He was tolerated in personal presence
there, if he chose thus to place himself, but as the
pipe was being moved along from one to another it
always went on past him, just as if he were not there
at all. Nobody abused him. They simply ignored
him. Hence, he ordinarily kept entirely away from
such gatherings.

An insignificant little pipe having a short stem
was conceded to him as an individual comfort. But
he had to smoke always alone. Such little pipes were
made of stone or of the leg bone of a deer or of some
other material not used for making the venerated
pipe used in formal smoking. When I was a little boy
I used to see one certain very old man who smoked
one of these little short-stemmed pipes. I did not
understand why he should do this. I asked my father
about it. He told me: "He killed a Cheyenne."

Social ostracism in various ways haunted the sub-
sequent life of the murderer otherwise cleansed from

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

his stain. If he came hungry to any lodge he was
fed. But when he was gone, the spoon or dish he had
used was destroyed. If he sat upon a robe, nobody
else ever afterward would sit upon it. If he became
needy, gifts were taken to his lodge, but this was
done by way of pity rather than by way of friendly
feeling. By exemplary conduct he might partly re-
store his standing, but it never was fully restored.

One time, when I was a boy five or six years old,
all of the Northern Cheyennes and all of the Southern
Cheyennes were camped together by the Giving
White Medal river.* Each of the tribes had its
sacred medicine tepee, the Northern Cheyennes for
their Buffalo Head and the Southern Cheyennes for
their Medicine Arrows. The great double camps re-
mained together several days. There were many cere-
monies, many social dances and other affairs, much
going back and forth between the two camps in the
renewal of old acquaintance and the making of new
acquaintance.

Chief of Many Buffalo and Rolling Wheel were
two men belonging then to our Northern Cheyenne
tribe. Chief of Many Buffalo was not married. Roll-
ing Wheel had a wife and a small boy. This wife was
tempted by the single man, and she took her boy and
went to live with him. Rolling Wheel complained to

* Smoky Hill river (?).

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CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

the chiefs. He asked that Chief of Many Buffalo
be compelled to give him a certain running horse, the
swiftest animal in the whole tribal herd.

"Yes, he must give you that horse/' the chiefs de-
cided.

An old man was sent to notify Chief of Many Buf-
falo. The owner of the racer announced that he
would keep it, that he had concluded he did not want
the woman. He sent her away to her father's lodge.
"That makes no difference," the old man said.
"Rolling Wheel now owns that horse."

He went and informed the aggrieved husband of
the situation. He told him:

"The horse belongs to you. Go and get it."

"I go now," Rolling Wheel replied.

He took his lariat rope and went out among the
herd. There on a little knoll stood Chief of Many
Buffalo, armed with a rifle.

"Go away," the armed man commanded.

But Rolling Wheel kept on after the horse. The
rifle flashed and barked. The man with the lariat
tumbled forward dead. Chief of Many Buffalo was
a murderer.

This banished man was not allowed to have any
tepee. For four years he slept in caves or in other
natural shelters he might find in the neighborhood of
our camping places. At the end of his term of isola-

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

tion he left us and went to the Southern Cheyennes.
There he married a widow of that tribe. Soon after-
ward he brought her and her two children to join us.
They made their permanent home with our people.
I remember clearly the time of their arrival at our
camp. I was ten years old. We were on Crow creek,
a stream that flows into Tongue river just north of
the present Sheridan.

The misguided wife of the dead Rolling Wheel re-
mained for several years an inhabitant of her father's
lodge. Finally she was married to another Chey-
enne. She was my aunt, a sister of my father, White
Buffalo Shaking Off the Dust.

A Cheyenne named Hawk came to us when I was
a small boy. I heard people talk of him. They said
he had been away four years, in consequence of his
having killed Sharp Nose. From the repeated stories
I learned the details.

The two men had been out together capturing wild
horses or on a raid upon an enemy herd. They
brought home three horses, one of them considered a
specially good animal and the other two of inferior
grade. Each one wanted to keep the first choice and
give the two others to his companion. They quar-
reled. It appeared that Sharp Nose had the better
claim to preference, but Hawk had possession of the
disputed animal. He had it picketed beside his lodge.

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CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

Sharp Nose on horseback and his father afoot went
there to argue further about the matter. Hawk sat
just outside his tepee entrance. He had his bow and
arrows. As the two approached, he stood up and
declared:

"I am going to kill you right now."

His arrow went through the body of the young man
on horseback. Sharp Nose plunged forward and fell
dead to the ground. His father shouted impreca-
tions upon the hot-headed killer. The father of Hawk
intervened to take a part in the affair. This old man
went into their tepee and came out with a muzzle
loading rifle in his hands. The father of the dead
Sharp Nose turned and walked away toward the
camp boundaries. The rifle was leveled and fired at
him. He staggered, evidently wounded, but he did
not fall. The shooter reloaded his rifle with powder,
bullet and cap. By that time the retreating victim
was far off and still walking away. A second shot
was sent after him. This time the result was fatal.

Hawk and his father were banished at once, not
being allowed to take with them any property what-
ever. I used to gaze upon the returned Hawk with
awe-stricken feelings. People whispered, "He killed
a Cheyenne." I do not remember ever having seen
his father. I believe the old man died while they
were in exile. The killing had been done somewhere

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between Cherry creek and the Arickaree river (north-
eastern Colorado). When Hawk joined the tribe
again we were near the agency south of the Black
ffills.

No property indemnity payment nor any other
substitute penalty could take the place of the four
years of banishment put upon a willful killer. If a
killing were accidental, the survivor might be com-
pelled to give horses and other presents to the rela-
tives of the deceased, or he voluntarily and promptly
might do his best to make amends to them in that
manner. If no blame whatever rested upon him, he
need pay nothing. Yet, it was customary for him to
show in some such way his sadness of heart because
of the occurrence.

Two youths, brothers, found one time a wolf's den.
One of them took his lariat and crawled into the hill-
side cave to get pups. He felt about in the darkness,
got the rope about a pup's hind feet and dragged it
out. They knocked it in the head and he went back
after another one. This time, either a pup or an old
wolf bit his hand. He retreated. Outside he got a
forked stick. With this projecting out in front of
him, he returned to the attack upon the wolves. The
forked end got engaged in the hair and skin of the
wolf. The youth twisted and tugged, backing out
and dragging after him the snarling and snapping

110

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

animal. The brother stood with his rifle poised and
ready to shoot. Limbs of brush diverted his aim, and
the bullet crashed into the head of the other boy.
The shocked and weeping brother put the dead body
upon a horse and took it to their home lodge. Peo-
ple flocked there to see and to hear.

"You killed him in anger," somebody accused.

"No, it was an accident," he sobbed out. And he
explained how it had occurred.

A group of warrior policemen went with him out
to the wolf's den. There he rehearsed for their ob-
servation all of the incidents of the happening. They
became fully satisfied that he had no intention to kill
his brother, that it truly was entirely accidental. The
youth was released with no penalty whatever.

As we were camped one time on the upper Powder
river, when I was about thirteen years old, Wolf Medi-
cine and other men loaded their pack horses with
buffalo robes and other skins and went to the trader
post at the southward (Fort Laramie) for buying
some supplies. They got tobacco, caps, powder, lead,
sugar, and goods of that character. Wolf Medicine
brought a sack of flour. Our women were just then
learning how to make bread. Wolf Medicine's wife
knew how to make it so it tasted good. He was a
little chief of the Elk warriors, and he wanted to give
them a feast. He said to his wife:

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"Make plenty of bread. I shall invite all Elks to

come."

"How," she assented, and she went immediately
at mixing flour and water. Then: "Oh, I have no
soda."

A young woman there said: "My mother has soda.
I will go and get some." She went to her home
lodge and told her mother. This woman rummaged
among her packages, looking into one after another.
"Here it is," she finally announced. The young
woman took the white powder to the wife of Wolf
Medicine. As the good cook proceeded with her
work, her proud husband went out to the front of his
lodge and stood there calling:

"All Elk warriors, come. Wolf Medicine has a
feast of bread."

That brought them in droves. The wife engaged
some helpers. They fried many slices of bacon and
they boiled a great potful of coffee. When the food
was being eaten everybody said: "Wolf Medicine's
wife can make good bread." The hearts of the hus-
band and the wife were made glad by the compli-
ments showered upon them.

After the feast, Wolf Medicine brought a supply
of tobacco. The assemblage was converted into a
grand smoking party. They passed the pipe and
chatted and told stories. After a while somebody

112

A CHEYENNE SWEAT LODGE

A CHEYENNE WOMAN TANNING

CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

said: "I feel sick. My stomach pains me." Just
then the neighbor woman came running and scream-
ing:

"I gave you the wrong powder! It is the wolf
poison!"

The commotion aroused and brought the whole
population of the camp. The victims were wallow-
ing and groaning. An old man herald went among
them calling out: "Make yourselves vomit." Some
already had done this, others began at once to gag
their throats with fingers poked into them. Two
men, Old Bear and White Elk, did not do this. In-
stead, they took doses of gunpowder in water. Both
of these men had convulsions and were sick a long
time, 'but they finally recovered full health. All of
the others got relief soon after the gagging and vomit-
ing. One of them was my father. As a test, some
remnants of bread was given to two dogs. Both of
the dogs went into convulsions and died. The woman
who had provided the supposed soda was not
punished. On the contrary, she was for a long time
afterward so distressed in mind that people sympa-
thized with and tried to console her.

A certain half-Sioux-half-Cheyenne man was
married to a Cheyenne woman and they lived with
our tribe. He killed one of our Cheyennes, served
his exile term of four years and returned to a small

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

village of Cheyennes where were his relatives. That
was considered right, but his next movement was con-
sidered not right. He went to visit another Chey-
enne village where were many relatives of the man
he had killed. Warning was sent to him not to come
there, that he would be killed, but he heeded not the
notice, or he designed to show special bravery that
might win a good standing. Two Cheyenne men ac-
companied him to the visited camp.

The three companions went from lodge to lodge,
being received courteously and fed at the various stop-
ping places. A brother of the man who had been
killed sat in his own lodge, there meditating and say-
ing nothing to anybody. He kept beside him a loaded
rifle. From time to time, as the three men moved
among the lodges he watched them from the interior
of his tepee. People began to taunt him:

"You are afraid."

"No, I will kill him today."

The Sioux-Cheyenne walked at all times between
the two Cheyenne companions when the three went
from any one lodge to another. But as they were
passing across one open area the middle man stopped
and bent himself forward to tie a loose moccasin
string. In a moment the bang of a rifle shot rang out
from the watcher's tepee. The half -Sioux pitched
headfirst to the ground. His death was regarded by

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CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

all as an earned infliction. The chiefs agreed: "He
ought not to have come so soon to this place where
are his victim's relatives. His slayer did right."

An Ogallala Sioux man had one of our women as
his wife. They lived with our people. The couple
had much domestic trouble. It was said the husband
grossly abused his wife. The matter came to a cli-
max as our Cheyennes were camped on the Giving
White Medal river. I was a baby or a small child,
and my knowledge of it comes only from hearsay
stories. But in later times I knew the people in-
volved.

The maltreated wife had two brothers, Dirty Moc-
casins and Tall White Man not the present old man
Tall White Man, but another Cheyenne dead many
years ago. These two brothers decided to end the
continual humiliation of their sister. They got their
bows and arrows and went man-hunting. Each of
them sent an arrow through the body of the offending
Sioux and put out the lights of his life. They were
not banished. Besides their having the natural sym-
pathy of the people, the dead man was a Sioux, not
a Cheyenne. Nevertheless, ever after that, Dirty
Moccasins smoked only a deer bone pipe and Tall
White Man used always a little stone one. For many
years I saw him as a scrawny and feeble old man
smoking the tiny short-stemmed stone pipe.

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The Sioux and his wife had a ten-year-old daugh-
ter. When she grew to womanhood she married a
Cheyenne man named Elk Creek. This couple had
three daughters, grandchildren of the Sioux killed
by the two brothers. One of these grandchildren
married Round Stone, another married a Fort Keogh
soldier named Thompson, the third is the wife of
Willis Rowland, our present interpreter at the Lame
Deer agency.

I heard a story about two Sioux in a Sioux camp
who quarreled concerning the ownership of a horse.
One of them had possession of the animal. The other
sat in his lodge and brooded over what he regarded
as a wrong done to him. He planned an unusual
mode of carrying out revenge. He went to a Chey-
enne camp near by and inquired there for a medicine
man. A Cheyenne led him to a certain lodge.

"I have important business," the Sioux announced.
"Come out where nobody can hear us."

The three went out of the camp, to a hilltop. The
young Cheyenne served as negotiator between the
Sioux and the medicine man.

"I want him to kill a Sioux," the visitor proposed.

There was some exchange of talk about the com-
pensation to the medicine man. Finally, an agree-
ment was reached. The medicine man received a

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CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

blanket, some moccasins and clothing, some food and
a keen-bladed and sharp-pointed sheathknife. A day
was consumed in settling the conditions. While this
was going on, the Sioux camp moved away and was
set up elsewhere. The angry Sioux and the medicine
man followed them. The lodge of the enemy was
pointed out. The medicine man drew the figure of a
man upon the outside wall of the lodge. At the right
place he made a special picture of the heart. Then
he told the angry Sioux:

"Take this knife. At dawn tomorrow morning
you must stab the heart picture I have drawn. Then
bring to me the knife."

The commanded procedure was carried out. The
wielder of the weapon was astonished when blood
flowed freely from the stabbed picture heart. He
ran away and told the medicine man, told him of the
blood and returned to him the knife.

"Good. He will die tonight, 55 came the assuring
declaration.

As the medicine man went back to the Cheyennes
he congratulated himself on the clever trick he had
played upon his confiding employer. "Good knife,
good blanket, good clothing, all for me," he
chuckled. But: That same night the enemy Sioux
man actually became ill. He vomited blood, and be-

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fore morning he was dead. I do not like that kind
of medicine actions. Such use of the powers makes
bad Indians.

The warrior days of a Cheyenne man began at the
age of about sixteen or seventeen, or sometimes a
little earlier for such activities as were not very diffi-
cult or risky. They ended somewhere between thirty-
five and forty, according to particular circumstances.
The regular rule was, every man was classed as a
warrior and expected to serve as such until he had a
son old enough to take his place. Then the father re-
tired from aggressive fighting and the son took up
the weapons for that family. If a man came into
early middle age without any son, he adopted one.
If he had more than one son, he might allow the addi-
tional one or more to be adopted by another man who
had none. By following this system, all of the offen-
sive fighting was done by young men, mostly the un-
married young men. The fathers and the older men
ordinarily stayed in the background, to help or to
shield the women and children. Or, if it was prac-
ticable, the fathers and old men and women followed
out the young warriors and stayed at a safe distance
behind, there to sing cheering songs and to call out
advice and encouragement. If a warrior's father or
some other old person put himself unnecessarily for-
ward in a battle he was likely to be criticised for his

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CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

needless risk, and also the young warriors felt ag-
grieved at his taking from them whatever of honors
might be gained in the combat. In general, the
young men were supposed to be more valuable as
fighters and less valuable as wise counselors, while
the older men were estimated in the opposite way.
It was considered as being not right for an important
older man to place himself as a target for the mis-
siles of the enemy, if he could avoid such exposure.
Even in a surprise attack upon us, it was expected
the seniors should run away, if they could get away,
while the more lively and supposedly more ambi-
tious young men met the attack.

Our war chiefs that is, the three leading chiefs
and the twenty-seven little chiefs of our three war-
rior societies were more useful as instructors in
quiet assemblage than as directors of operation in
times of battle. There were frequent gatherings of
the warrior societies, each in its own gathering,
where the chiefs exchanged ideas about methods of
combat and about daily care of the personal self,
and where the listening young warriors learned their
lessons. If some aggressive war was contemplated,
these chiefs agreed upon the plans. But when any
battle actually began it was a case of every man for
himself. There were then no ordered groupings,
no systematic movements in concert, no compulsory

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goings and comings. Warriors of all societies min-
gled indiscriminately, every individual went where
and when he chose, every one looked out for him-
self only, or each helped a friend if such help were
needed and if the able one's personal inclination
just then was toward friendly helpfulness. The war-
rior chiefs called out advice, perhaps a reminder of
some rule of action theretofore discussed in the
gatherings, or perhaps some special suggestion that
exactly fitted the immediate situation, such as,
"Yonder is one whose horse is down; go right in
after him." Ordinarily the advice of the chiefs was
heeded. But the obedience was a voluntary one.
In battle, the chiefs had not authority to issue com-
mands that must be obeyed.

Special war parties made up of members of some
certain warrior society often went out seeking con-
flict with the enemy. The warrior societies com-
peted with each other for effectiveness in this kind of
activity, as well as in all other activities regarded as
commendable. At times, the members of some cer-
tain warrior society would be selected by the tribal
chiefs to do all of the tribal fighting in some case
where the opposition was looked upon as being not
great enough to make necessary the use of the entire
tribal military forces. If this appointed segment of
our fighters did well they were acclaimed. If they

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CHEYENNE WAYS OF LIFE

did not do well, especially if other warriors had to go
to their assistance, the original combatants were
discredited. Ordinarily, whatever warrior society
was on duty as camp policemen had also the duty as
special camp defenders. It was their business to be
the first ones out to meet any attack upon the camp.
Members of the other societies added their help if
necessary, refrained from doing so if they were not
needed. If the enemy onset was sufficient to render
needful the resistance of all of the warriors in the
camp, all of them were called by the heralds of the
tribal chiefs. In cases of extreme danger, even the
old men and some of the women might use whatever
weapons they could seize and wield.

The Sioux tribes had ways closely resembling those
of the Cheyeimes. We traveled and visited much
with them, particularly with the Ogallalas, some-
times with the Minneconjoux. The Sioux tribal gov-
ernments were almost the same as ours. Each of
them had numerous tribal chiefs, each had various
warrior societies and chiefs of them. Their warriors
dressed for death in battle, all of their people dressed
for death in time of peace, according to the same cus-
toms among us. Their warrior training by precept
and by discipline was similar to our system. They
fought their battles as a band of individuals, the same
as we fought ours, and the same as was the way of

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all Indians I ever knew. They had war dances and
medicine dances differing only a little from our cere-
monies of this kind. So when white people learn the
ways of the Cheyennes they have learned also a great
deal of the ways of the Sioux and of other Indians in
this part of the world.

122

IV

Worshiping The Great Medicine.

I made medicine the first time when I was seven-
teen years old (1875). It was during the month of
May, I believe, although we did not divide the years
into months or weeks as the white people later taught
us to divide them. Our family was in a camp of four-
teen or fifteen lodges of Cheyennes in the hills at the
head of Otter creek, a stream flowing into the eastern
side of Tongue river. The main camp of the tribe was
on Powder river, east of our location.

To "make medicine" is to engage upon a special
period of fasting, thanksgiving, prayer and self de-
nial, even of self torture. The procedure is entirely
a devotional exercise. The purpose is to subdue the
passions of the flesh and to improve the spiritual self.
The bodily abstinence and the mental concentration
upon lofty thoughts cleanses both the body and the
soul and puts them into or keeps them in health.
Then the individual mind gets closer toward con-
formity with the mind of the Great Medicine above us.

I said to my father: "All during my boyhood and
youth the Great Medicine has been good to me. I
have fond parents and kind brothers and sisters. I

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have had plenty of food and have had no bad sick-
ness. No bullet nor arrow has hit me. No serious
injury of any kind has fallen upon me. I ought to do
something to show my gratitude for all of these
favors."

"Yes, my son, you owe a debt for them," my father
agreed.

Red Haired Bear, a good medicine man or spiritual
adviser, was in our small camp. His wife was my
mother's sister. I went to him.

"I want to make medicine," I told him. "I think
I have lived in a way good enough to render me
worthy. I want to become still better. I want to
thank the Great Medicine and ask His continued fa-
vor. I want to become able to kill all enemies I may
meet and to be shielded from their assaults upon me.
I do not want to die in any manner until I reach old
age. I wish you would help me."

"How," he responded encouragingly. "What
number of days do you think you can endure?"

"The whole four days," I replied confidently.

"How," he glowed. "I will help you."

He warned me it was a difficult undertaking for
any young man. He urged me to be brave. He said
the bravest ones always got the greatest spiritual
benefit. I asserted myself as feeling equal to any dis-
tress that might come to me.

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WORSHIPING THE GREAT MEDICINE

"That is good," he cheered me on. "You shall
have the strongest of trials. You shall stay out one
night without any shelter, the next night you may
have a little cone tepee, the third night you may build
for yourself a willow dome lodge."

This proposition put a check upon my eagerness.
I had not thought of being unprotected from bad
weather during any part of the time. It occurred to
my mind that a rainstorm might interfere with the
devotions. Even with a little cone tepee over me, a
strong wind might upset the entire programme. My
medicine might be broken by accidents like these. I
asked if a willow dome lodge could be used during
the entire procedure.

"How. It shall be as you desire/*

He started me out to cut willow wands for making
the medicine lodge. He told me I must get seven-
teen of them, each a clean and strong and long piece
of pliable green wood. I carefully gathered them,
selecting and rejecting. I tied them into a pack bun-
dle. Throwing the bundle upon my back and taking
a crowbar in my hands, I carried the burden far up a
gulch and into the timber at the hilltop. I chose a
spot for the lodge and put down my load. With the
crowbar I punched in the ground sixteen holes
around a circle about eight feet in diameter. Into
these holes I set upright sixteen of the wands. I

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

then bent their tops across, pairing them and tying
together the pairs. The skeleton dome was com-
pleted by weaving through the coupled tops the
seventeenth strand, this running from east to west. I
returned then to Red Haired Bear for further instruc-
tions.

"Get a buffalo head," he ordered me.

I searched the neighborhood until I found one.
Under his directions I heaped up dirt into a low
mound about eight feet due east from where was to
be the eastern entrance opening of the lodge. Upon
this mound was placed the buffalo head, it being set
to face toward the lodge. I cleared off all grass and
twigs to make a clean path between the buffalo head
and the lodge opening. I gathered armfuls of sweet
sagegrass and spread it as a carpet upon the floor of
the enclosed circle. The two of us returned then to
Red Haired Bear's lodge.

The medicine man painted my whole body. Red
clay mixed into water, in a dish, was used for most of
the painting. Four times he took portions of the
powdered red earth, each separate time casting the
portion upon the water's surface and uttering low
prayers as he stirred it into solution. After having
put the red coloring upon the entire surface of my
skin he got out from his medicine bag a package of
pulverized black earth. Four different casts and

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WORSHIPING THE GREAT MEDICINE

four separate stirrings into water were made likewise
with this coloring material. With the black paint he
made first a circle about my face, including the fore-
head, the chin and the cheeks. Black wristlets and
black anklets were next formed. On the middle of
my breast he painted a black sun. On my left
shoulderblade he put a black moon.

My director then offered a prayer:

"Great Medicine Above: You see Wooden Leg.
He wants to be a good man. Look upon him and
favor him. Make him brave and wise and kind.
Make him generous to his people, to all Indians,
even to his enemies if they come peaceably and in
need. Help him to defeat all enemies who may
beset him, and shield him from their efforts to take
his life. Guide him so that he may be rich in food
and skins and horses. Help him to find a good wife.
Give to them many children. Keep them all in good
health and make them live a long time/*

He prayed also to the ground spirits. As he
prayed to the Great Medicine he looked upward, and
as he addressed the spirits below he looked down
toward the ground. When the prayers were ended
we walked together to the medicine lodge I had built
in the hilltop forest. We sat down there beside the
slender path I had made to connect the buffalo head
and the entrance to the lodge. He talked to me:

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'This is going to be a hard trial for you, the hard-
est trial you ever have had. Throughout four days
you will have neither food nor water. Your desires
will distress you. Other distresses may be piled
upon these. You may retreat now and postpone it
to another time if you want to do so. What say
you?"

"I dread it/ 5 I confessed, "but I know it will not
kill me. I do not want to wait. I want to go on
right now. I shall keep my courage from failing by
fixing my thoughts upon being a good man."

"That is good," he cheered me. Then he added:
"Be brave."

The medicine man prayed again for me. He
looked again upward and again downward, going
through the same prayer for the below spirits as he
had made to the Above Spirit. The praying was
of the same kind as he had uttered just after the
painting preparations, but he added some other so-
licitations for my welfare.

After this prayer had ended I crept in upon the
sagegrass floor of the skeleton willow dome. He
covered the frame all over with many buffalo robes
we had brought. Not even a faint ray of light could
get inside. He then went away to our camp.

I now was alone. For a little while I just sat
there in the darkness complete darkness, although

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WORSHIPING THE GREAT MEDICINE

it was about the middle of the afternoon. I was
naked, except for the breechcloth and a buffalo robe.
I had a supply of kinnikinick, some matches, and my
medicine pipe that had been given to me by my
father. I loaded and lit the pipe for a thoughtful
smoke. The flash of the match dazzled my eyes.
Time dragged along. I could not smoke continu-
ously, so I just sat there and meditated, or tried to
do so. I did not know when the sun went down
nor when darkness came. It began to seem rather
lonely. I grew sleepy, so I stretched myself out
with the robe about me and drifted into a doze. But
every little sound startled me. I sat up and had
another smoke. Soon I had another, and then an-
other. I slept again, this time more soundly. I
had not the least notion as to how long I remained
asleep. It seemed I had been there more than a day
and night, that the medicine man had forgotten me.
I listened intently to every slight rustle in the sur-
rounding forest. My prayers all had been in
thoughts, not in spoken words. I almost wished for
some disturbing intrusion to break up the entire pro-
ceeding. Noise of a horse's footsteps fell into my
ears. Closer, closer, very close.

"Hey, Wooden Leg!" It was the voice of Red
Haired Bear. "One day has passed. It now is

noon."

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He dismounted and opened slightly the entrance
covering. The light blinded me for a moment.
Gradually he opened it wider, finally throwing it
altogether aside. He allowed me to go outside for
a few minutes, then I had to return to the interior.

"Let us smoke together," he invited.

He sat just outside and I sat just inside. My smok-
ing equipment was brought into use. He pointed the
stem and sent a puff to each of the four principal
directions, then to the above, to the below and to the
buffalo head. We passed the pipe back and forth
in many exchanges, until one loading of it was ex-
hausted. He prayed again for me. Then he ad-
monished me:

"The next day will be more difficult. But, be not
afraid. The Great Medicine sees you."

He shut up the lodge, mounted his horse and went
away.

Fitful slumbers, prayers, smoking, efforts at medi-
tation, these alternated in my quiet activities. I
was hungry and thirsty, especially thirsty. My body
was hot. My heart was heavy. My ears constantly
were listening, listening, to every faint whisper of
Nature. All of the time appeared to be night, the
blackest of night. Suddenly there came a stamp
stamp stamp. Then:

"Boo-o-o-o ! Boo-o-o^o ! "

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A buffalo bull ! The animal snorted, stamped and
bellowed again. It surely would charge upon my
lodge and tear it to pieces, I thought. I did not move,
but I prayed earnestly: "Great Medicine, shield me.
I have tried to be a good young man. You have
been kind to me in past times. Be kind to me now."
I heard the threatening beast move away. It did not
return.

Hours, hours, hours. I did not know whether it
was day or night. I heard a horse coming. That
was a welcome sound. I was all attention.

"Hey, Wooden Leg!"

"Hey!"

"Two days have passed," Red Haired Bear in-
formed me. "The sun now is far toward the west
on your third day."

Again he opened my dark retreat, gradually let-
ting in more and more light. Again we smoked to-
gether. I told him of the buffalo bull. He listened
with evident great interest.

"That is a good sign," he comforted me. "No
buffalo ever will harm you. You and all other Chey-
ennes will get plenty of meat and skins from them.
The bull was your friend, telling you all this."

Another prayer went from the medicine man to
the Above and to the below. After a short allow-
ance of time for me outside, he put me again

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into the enclosure and shut tightly the small hole.

"Be brave," were his parting words.

"Yes," I replied. But I was not sure.

Hot, thirsty, yet more hot and more thirsty. I
prayed particularly for strength of body and firm-
ness of heart to carry me through to the end of the
trial. I loaded my pipe for a solacing smoke. But
it was not a solace. The heat burned my already
parching tongue. I tried to sleep. Maybe I did
sleep. I do not know. I made attempts to meditate
quietly. I do not know whether I actually was think-
ing or was following dreams racing through my mind.
All I could be sure about was that I either was
sitting down or lying down all the time. I heard
something that cleared my mind at once. My mother
brought wood and stones and placed them out by the
buffalo head. She did not speak nor make any sign
of recognition, but I knew it was my mother. It
seemed I could look right through the robes and
see her there. After she had deposited her burden
she went away.

Oh, how lonely I was! I loaded and lit my pipe.
No, it was not good. My mouth and throat were
burning. Water! Water! But: "The Great Medi-
cine sees me," I kept thinking. My thoughts whirled
and chased each other rapidly in circles. I dreamt
that I heard the footsteps of a horse.

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"Hey, Wooden Leg!"

"Hey!"

"This is the day."

Happiness almost filled my heart. The only
hindrance was in the thirst and the hot body. After
I had been let out we smoked together. It was a
torture to my tongue, but I did not complain. We
went then to my father's lodge in the camp. My
father called out invitations to old men friends. They
came and sat in a circle upon the robes spread over
the lodge's floor. I sat with them, by the side of
my father. My mother brought a bucketful of water
and set it off a little distance in front of me. I sup-
pressed a strong desire to plunge my face into it,
but I could not keep my eyes from staring at it. The
medicine man sprinkled red powder upon the surface
of the water, four small scatterings in four separate
places. He passed his hands to and fro over it and
prayed. It seemed I never in my life had heard so
long a prayer. When it was ended he said to me:

"Wooden Leg, you have been four days without
water. Now you may drink four sups."

I seized the sides of the bucket. The four sups
were four long-drawn mouthfuls. The water rum-
bled through my bowels. After a few minutes I was
told, "Now you may have more, but do not take all
you want." I drank slowly, but I drew in big mouth-

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fuls and took many of them. Not long afterward I
was allowed to apply myself a third time at the
bucket.

My mother brought a potful of buffalo meat she
had been boiling. All of the guests were given por-
tions of it. A piece was put upon a tin plate and
set before me. It looked good enough to grab and
swallow immediately. But I waited for advice. My
adviser did not long detain me.

"Wooden Leg, you have been four days without
meat. Take four sliced-off bites, one for each day
of the fast."

I selected a long chunk from the plate. I stuck
the end of it far into my mouth, and with a sheath-
knife I cut it off. The chewing was vigorous, and
I soon had it swallowed. The chunk was pushed a
second time into my mouth and its end cut off there.
A third and a fourth mouthful were taken in the
same manner. After a few minutes, more meat was
allowed to me. Then still more, all I cared to eat.
It was the best meat I ever tasted.

The old men joined in asking me:

"Tell us of your experience."

I told them told them particularly of the com-
ing of the buffalo bull. They complimented me, said
I was brave, said the Great Medicine was my friend,
assured me that no buffalo ever would harm me.

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Their approval and their assurances made me glad.
My heart was like the sun coming up on a summer
morning.

All of these old men, some of their wives, my
father and mother and the medicine man went with
me to my medicine lodge. We were to have a sweat
bath worship together. My mother carried a bucket-
ful of water for sprinkling upon the hot stones inside
the lodge. The medicine man -piled the stones into
a cone heap. He leaned sticks of wood up the sides
of this stone structure and set a fire to going among
them. The other men stripped themselves to breech-
cloth and crept into the lodge. When the stones had
become well heated by the wood fire over them the
medicine man passed them to one of the men inside.
They were handled with forked sticks and were piled
into a pit some of the men had made in the center
of the lodge's earth floor. When the pit was filled
with the hot stones the medicine man set inside the
bucketful of water. He himself then crept in, on
hands and knees as we all had done. One man re-
mained outside to close the opening, to ventilate tem-
porarily when we might require, to wait upon us in
whatever way our needs might demand. Not any
of the women went into the lodge. Twelve men
were in there.

At the left inside of the entrance sat the medicine

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man. I was next at his left side. My father was
third, at my left. The other men were seated on
beyond, the row extending around the circle. All
had backs to the wall. We had smoked together
while the stones were being heated, but the pipe now
had been placed outside. Its bowl rested on the
ground beside the buffalo head and its stem projected
upward past the nose and eyes of the hallowed ob-
ject. A good spirit influence was coming from the
nostrils of the head straight along the clean path and
into the lodge. No knowing and worshipful Indian
ever crossed that path. Such act would cut off the
steady flow of healing virtue.

The medicine man opened the interior proceed-
ings with another prayer for my welfare. Once more
he pleaded with the Great Medicine to make me
good and generous, to give me success in hunting, to
protect me from enemies and to enable me to kill
them. Once more he asked that I might get a good
wife, might have many children, and that myself and
all of my family might keep good health and live to
advanced years. He beseeched again that I might
gather together many horses and not lose any of them.
I believed his prayers would be heard. My hopes
were high. My trust in the Being Above was strong.

Water was squirted upon the hot stones in the
central pit. The medicine man first gave each one

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in the lodge a drink of water. He took into his own
mouth a chew of herb. After its mastication he
supped and squirted four successive mouthfuls of
water. Between the acts were short prayers. Thus
he released from the stones the vitality put into them
by the burning wood that had got it from the sun,
the material representative of the Great Medicine,
The stones hissed their protests as the water com-
pelled them to release into the air the spiritual cura-
tive forces. Our bodies were enveloped by the steam
wherein floated the vital energy. The vivifying and
purifying influence soaked into our skins. Bad spirits
were driven out of us and drowned in the water that
dripped from us. The medicine man repeated from
time to time the sprinkling of water upon the pro-
testing stones.

The soft whisperings of an eagle wing bone flute
came into my ears. The sound seemed to come from
the roof and from other points in the utterly dark
interior of the lodge. After a few of the gentle blasts,
I felt the instrument being placed in my hands. My
father put it there. It now was mine, to keep. It
was to be worn about my neck, suspended at the mid-
breast by a buckskin thong, during all times of dan-
ger. If I were threatened with imminent harm I had
but to put it to my lips and cause it to send out its
soothing notes. That would ward off every evil de-

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sign upon me. It was my mystic protector. It was
my medicine.

After an hour or more together in the devotional
dome, all of us went to our respective lodge homes.
There my father presented me also with a shield of
rawhide taken from the rump of a buffalo bull. The
hair had been removed and the piece of skin had
been dried rapidly before a fire, to make it extremely
tough. It was covered with antelope buckskin sewed
in place. The cover had medicine designs drawn in
color upon its surface. This shield would turn off
any bullet or arrow or other missile coming toward
me. My father made it. He delivered it into my
left hand.

My second medicine experience took place a month
or so after that first one. Black White Man, a medi-
cine man, took me through it. This time the plan
was for but two days of self denial and worship. I
made the dome lodge according to the same rules
as had governed in making the first one, which was
the regular way of making them. Black White Man
painted me in the same way and with the same cere-
mony used by Red Haired Bear. I had the same kind
of harassing sensations while alone, but they covered
only two days instead of four. The resumption of
water and food was carried out in a manner exactly
like had been done in the previous proceedings. The

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sweat bath devotions had a like preparatory pro-
gramme and followed a course like that of the other
one and of all such affairs entered upon among the
Cheyennes. But during this second time of spiritual
upbuilding there was one intervening incident that
marked it as different from all others.

During the last part of my lonely vigil I learned
afterward it was during my second night my
quietude was broken by the tread of horses, many
horses. I heard men talking. Gabble-gabble-gabble.
It was not Cheyenne talk. It was not Sioux. This
being the case, the horsemen necessarily must be
enemies, either whites or Indians. It seemed now
that the bellowing buffalo bull of my previous ex-
perience had been but a tame threat. It appeared
I surely would be discovered or already had been
discovered, by the gabbling strangers. It seemed
that death threatened me. My hair raised itself and
I could feel it standing upright. My heart thumped
It throbbed and pounded the inner wall of my breast.
To my senses its noise was so boisterous as to notify
the intruders and all the rest of the world that a
human being frozen by fright awaited the fatal blow.
I did not move perhaps was not able to move. But
I could think. I centered my thoughts upon whis-
pering over and over, "The Great Medicine sees

"Hi-ye-e-e-e!" The war-cry!

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"Bang! Bang! Bang-bang!" Rifle shots.

The horses near me clattered away. One of them
bawled as if wounded by a bullet The strange
voices went out of my hearing. Other voices shouted.
These were Cheyennes. I heard Cheyenne women
and children crying as they ran past my retreat. But
I could do nothing but just sit there with my buffalo
robe over my head. The commotion gradually died
down. My pious meditations were much disturbed
by the alarming turmoil. I could not keep myself
from wondering what had happened. I wondered
if the Cheyennes had been driven from their camp
and had left me there alone. This thought chilled
me. But I stayed, waiting, waiting. Many hours
later Bkck White Man came.

"They were Crows trying to steal our horses," he
explained. The raiders had been repulsed, but one
of our Cheyennes had been killed. "It shows that
the Crows never can hurt you," the medicine man
assured me.

For a third season of warrior discipline I went
one morning at dawn to the top of a hill. There I
fasted, prayed, meditated and dreamed all day. Dur-
ing the day I saw the lodges taken down and the
whole camp move away down the valley. But I had
to stay. When the sun had set I started out afoot
to follow the trail of my people. I drank water along

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the way, but I got no food until my arrival at the
home lodge at the end of my journey of ten or twelve
miles.

Another disciplinary means for subduing the flesh
was to stand upright all day, from sunrise to sunset,
on a hill. The devotee did not move during that
time except to keep his face turned at all times to-
ward the sun. He might keep his eyes closed or
shaded, but his countenance had to be presented
ever toward the venerated token of the Great Medi-
cine's existence. He prayed or otherwise kept his
thoughts fixed on a high plane. This system of self
denial was varied by the attitude taken. One might
stand all day or sit in one position all day or lie
down during all of the time. But the attitude as-
sumed at the beginning must be kept to the end.
My all-day supplications were made while sitting
down.

Standing upright in water from sunrise to sunset
was one way of putting the body under the rule of
the spirit. The water had to be up to the neck or
the upper breast. Not any drink of it was taken.
It was not permissible to move the body except for
keeping the face toward the sun. The bodily torture
incident to the full standard Great Medicine dance
what the white people call the sun dance was
the most severe test of hardihood, so it was looked

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upon as the highest form of self scourging. I never
undertook this extreme step.

Women did not make medicine by feats of endur-
ance. Such was for men only. Sometimes two
men would go together for the all-day hilltop fast
or for some other similar performance. Ordinarily,
though, only one man made up the vigil. I like best
the solitary way. I think it is better to be alone at
such times. At any of the occasions observable it
was permissible for onlookers to view the act. Such
scrutiny might aid greatly in spurring on to full
compliance with the rules. Payment to any medi-
cine man helper was due. This might be such as
was agreed upon in advance often paid in advance
or it might be in the form of subsequent free gifts
to him. The standard fee was a horse.

Our tribal Great Medicine dance was a ceremony
of one, two or three days, the period depending upon
immediate conditions. In times before mine the full
period had been four days, but in my time three days
was the maximum. It was not held at any regular
time. . Once every two or three years was the usual
custom. It would be held, though, in successive
years if the tribe was haying misfortune or if enough
special devotees wanted to undergo the trials. The
summer season was the special time. The prime
purpose was to ask the Great Medicine's favorable

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attention to the tribe as a whole, not to any particu-
lar persons. The prayers were for good grass, new
colts in the horse herds, plenty of berries and roots,
many children, success in hunting game and in re-
pelling enemies.

The Cheyennes and the Arapahoes had their two
Great Medicine ceremony dances together on one oc-
casion when I was about twelve years old (1870).
We were south of the mountains beyond the head-
waters of Powder river. The two tribes camped as
one, in one great camp circle, but all of the Cheyenne
lodges were at one side of the camp and all of the
Arapaho lodges at the opposite side. Each tribe had
its Great Medicine lodge at its own side of the com-
bined camp. I went back and forth looking on at
both of them. The other people of both tribes did
the same. I was not quite old enough during our
free roaming days to take a part in the important
tribal affairs. I merely looked, listened, kept quiet
and thought about them. This double sacred dance
of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes was for only one
day. During that one day all of the participants and
many other people took neither food nor water. After
sunset they had a great feast. That was the regular
way the participants took neither food nor water
while the ceremonies were being carried out, one,
two, three or four days.

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Special invocation dances were held irregularly,
often several times during one season. One or sev-
eral or many persons would perform the rites. At
a buffalo dance the intent was to obtain the aid of
the Great Medicine in our efforts at getting the meat
and skins of these animals. Deer dances, elk dances,
antelope dances, were engaged upon by individuals,
by parties or by the tribe. The object was to enlist
spiritual forces to help us in gathering meat and
skins. Berry dances, by few or by many people, had
a like incentive. Always the dances were in summer,
none of them in winter. Always there was self de-
nial in various forms, sacrifices were made in various
ways. At times the self denial was carried to the
point of bodily torture. That was our way of paying
in advance for the favors asked. That was all we
could do by way of payment.

The spirits of animals joined themselves often to
assist or to hinder human beings. Sometimes one
would give its medicine to a man, at other times some
animal would break a man's medicine, or would try
to do so. At my father's lodge an old man, Pock-
marked Nose, told of a certain experience that came
to him. My father afterward told me.

Pockmarked Nose went one time with a young
man to hunt buffalo. They were on horseback and
were leading pack horses to bring back the meat and

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skins. They traveled up and down hills and over the
level plains. Finally they found a band of buffalo.
They got themselves ready and charged into the
band. The young man had a bow and arrows, Pock-
marked Nose had a flintlock gun. He killed a buf-
falo. Just afterward a shot came from somewhere
aside and another buffalo went down. That shot
from aside puzzled the two hunters, but they rode
on. Each time the old man or the young man killed
a buffalo the shot from aside brought down another
to match it. But, who was doing this shooting?
Was it a friend or an enemy? They could not see
anybody. When six buffalo lay dead on the plain the
old man applied himself at discovering the identity
of the third hunter. Far off, on a slight elevation
of the land, stood a dimly outlined human figure.
Pockmarked Nose rode toward it.

Was it the Above Spirit, the Great Medicine? Or
was it a below spirit? Or was some powerful medi-
cine man playing tricks? Pockmarked Nose did not
know, and he never did find out to his satisfaction.
The stranger had a wooden gun. He said: "Come,
I give you this medicine gun. It never fails to kill."
Pockmarked Nose took and kept the offered gun.
I do not know what use he may have made of it.

My father himself saw a marvelous example of
the spirit powers regularly belonging to the deer

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tribe. When he was a young man he and a companion
were hunting near the medicine water * not far from
the present town of Sheridan, Wyoming. They sa>.
bubbles coming up and bursting upon the water's
surface. They went up close, to learn what was
causing this agitation. As they peered down into the
deep but clear lake they saw there a deer moving
about and quietly grazing along the bottom. While
they were watching the animal it stopped grazing
and floated slowly up to the water's surface. My
father killed it with an arrow. He skinned it, cut
the meat from the bones, wrapped the skin about
the meat and loaded the bundle upon his packhorse.
At his home lodge he stood out and called the names
of various friends. He invited them:
"Come, feast with me. Good deer meat."
But when he shouted these words the flesh and
the skin all jumped together and formed again the
same live deer he had killed. The animal went run-
ning away. It ran back to the medicine water,
plunged into it and disappeared. My father searched
for it, but he could not see it. He told me he did not
understand how a deer could do such things except
it were by the help of the Great Medicine.

Three of our medicine men invited some of us
young men into a tepee on one certain occasion when

Lake DeSmet.

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WORSHIPING THE GREAT MEDICINE

I was about fourteen or fifteen years old. They said,
"We will show you how to make the winter go away
so that the grass may grow, for the good of the young
colts coming to our herds." Just at that time there
was a big snowstorm making the people and the
horses shiver. But the three medicine men went
confidently at their ceremonies.

They sent a young woman out to gather some cer-
tain kind of sprigs of vegetation. It was not tobacco,
but pretty soon the medicine men had it changed into
tobacco. They formed a circle with us, loaded the
pipe, and soon it was passing from one to another.
To each of us in turn they said: "Draw in only a
little of the smoke, but draw it in slowly and deeply.
Hold it there a short time, then let it flow out from
wide-open lips, not in puffs from firm lips." We did
as they directed. While the smoking was being done
the three old men made prayers. After a while one
of them said: "Look outside." We looked. The
storm had quit, the sky had cleared, the ground was
wet but bare of snow, green grass was peeping up
everywhere.

Every Indian had, or tried to have, some special
medicine or spirit power of his own, to bring him
good fortune or to shield him from harm. He had
some object or objects that held this helpful influ-
ence, or he had certain ways of doing certain acts,

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or he had both of these aids. I had my special pro-
tective possessions and my particular methods of
using them. It was considered not prudent to reveal
these things, and I never have done so, except in
some features that I could not keep secret.

A powerful spirit man during my boyhood was
one whose name originally was Walks Above the
Earth. He was known as a man whose mind was
at all times on spiritual things, who gave little or no
thought to ordinary earthly matters. His name got
changed, though, in his later life. This came about
because of his choice of a mule for his riding animal.
One time when he and Little Chief were approaching
a Sioux camp somebody remarked, in derision,
"Here comes that crazy Cheyenne on his mule/ 5
That fixed upon him the name Crazy Cheyenne on
a Mule. This afterward was shortened to Crazy
Mule.

He had a variety of medicine powers. He put him-
self through many trials, so the spirits helped him.
One time, when we were in camp far up the Powder
river, he had four Cheyennes go up close to him and
shoot at him, each in successive turn. They sent
four bullets directly at his body. He was standing
with his back against a tree. After the four shots
had been fired he stooped forward and pulled off his
moccasins. From them he poured out the four bul-

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lets. I saw this. I was eight years old. I saw him
do the same feat at a time when our tribal camp was
pitched on the Rosebud valley, just below where the
present Forsythe road forks to go to Lame Deer and
to Ashland. At another time he showed his powers
when the tribe were on upper Lame Deer creek.
This was just before our warriors joined the Ogallala
Sioux to fight the soldiers in the fort * at the south
of us.

Roman Nose was, I believe, the most admired of
all warriors I ever saw. He was killed when I yet
was a boy, but I remember him, and as I grew older
I heard much talk of him as an example for the
young men. The water spirits told him not to marry,
so he lived a single and pure life. At various Great
Medicine dances he went bravely through the bodily
tortures as a sacrifice of self for the good of the tribe.
White Bull, sometimes known also as Ice, was his
usual medicine man adviser. In later years White
Bull and others told me a great many stories illus-
trative of the admirable qualities of Roman Nose.

He made medicine one time when we were camped
on Goose creek, a stream flowing into the upper
Tongue river. The medicine water lake was not far
away. At dawn Roman Nose stripped himself, made
a raft of logs and went out upon the lake. He took

*Fort Phil Kearny.

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with him his medicine pipe. He had a large buffalo
robe for a bed and a small one for a pillow. No
food, no water for drinking. He spent the day on
his robe bed. He prayed, "Great Medicine, let me
conquer all enemies," and other prayers of this kind.
He meditated upon the Above.

That night a storm came. Lightning flashed and
thunder shook the earth. Waves washed -upon the
raft and tossed it over the surface of the water. His
friends were fearful he would be drowned. Early
in the morning two men went to look for him. They
saw him on the raft, floating safely. They told the
people, "He was not harmed."

The second day he likewise prayed and meditated
all day. His fast was continued. When that night
arrived another storm came. The thunder and light-
ning were more active than they had been during
the previous night. The waves lifted themselves
higher. But when the calm morning dawned his
watchers learned that nothing harmful had fallen
upon him. The third day and night passed in the
same manner, but the storm during the hours of
darkness was yet more furious. "He surely will be
killed by the water spirits tonight," the people said.
But he was not.

The fourth night the storm was a terrible one, the
worst any of the Cheyennes ever had seen. They

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were fearful for themselves as well as for the young
man on the raft. Hailstones pelted our lodges and
scattered our pony herds. "He will be beaten to
death/' everybody agreed. When the quiet twilight
of morning came, two men went upon a hill to search
over the waters. There was Roman Nose still float-
ing on his raft. They helped him to land it and to
put himself upon the shore. Not a hailstone had
hit him. The water had been angry, crazy, reaching
for his body, but not a drop of it had touched him.
The water spirits failed to devour him. The Great
Medicine prevented them. At the camp all of the
old men sat themselves in a circle and listened to
his rehearsal of the events of his great devotional
adventure.

At a battle with soldiers on Powder river (1865)
Roman Nose showed the people that he had special
protection against enemies. He rode his horse sev-
eral times back and forth in front of the white men.
He rode slowly, not fast. The soldiers shot at him,
but not a bullet went into him. They either missed
him or fell back harmless. He had a strong medicine
warbonnet. I did not see him defy the soldiers, but
I heard a great deal of talk about it. Our camp
was above the forks of Powder river and Little Pow-
der river. The battle was down below, on Powder
river. Both the Northern and the Southern Chey-

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enne tribes were in the upper valley, camping side
by side. Both of the Great Medicine tribal lodges
were in the camps, the one for our sacred Buffalo
Head, and the other for the Medicine Arrows of the
Southern Cheyennes.

White Bull made many medicine fasts. He told
me about them. He said that one time when he was
fasting and praying on a hill, not in a lodge, on the
third day a doe antelope came near to him. She
lay down there on the ground and gave birth to twin
fawns. White Bull reached out and seized the doe's
hind feet. She struggled, but he did not release
her. She promised that if he would let her go free
she would give to him the two fawns. But he told
her he did not want the fawns, he wanted her medi-
cine, her spirit powers. The doe groaned and pro-
tested, but finally she agreed:

"Yes, I give you my medicine."

He got the bear medicine also in a manner like
that When he was fasting and praying on a hill
the bear came sniffing, sniffing, on his trail. It
stopped suddenly as it came into his view. Both
of them were startled and frightened. White Bull
trusted the Great Medicine, but the bear was alto-
gether afraid. It said, "If you will not harm me I
will give you my medicine, and then you can speak
fire from your mouth." It gave him then its power

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WORSHIPING THE GREAT MEDICINE

over spirits. He got also the medicine of a wild
hog. Perhaps he had other medicines. I do not
know. He had a good reputation for doctoring sick
people. I have heard him "Blaa-a-a-a," like a doe
antelope, when he was making medicine for them.
I have heard him, lots of times, grunting like a hog or
whoofing like a bear. I never knew how much to be-
lieve of his stories. Lots of people said he told big
lies.

My father taught me some medicine practices for
myself. He showed me where to gather the seed of
certain grass that had power to shield me. A quan-
tity of the seed was put into a buckskin pouch, and
this I carried tied to my back hair. In the pouch was
also a piece of loose buckskin. To prepare the medi-
cine, a few seeds were pulverized between the fingers
and the powder was allowed to fall upon the piece of
buckskin spread out. A little saliva was mixed with
it by the stirring of a finger. A slight spray of saliva
then was put into the palms, after which the mixed
seed and saliva medicine was taken into the palms and
they were rubbed together. When they had been well
rubbed they were passed all about my body or cloth-
ing, near the skin or clothing but not touching.
Bullets then would be diverted and slip aside
from me.

My horse was protected by the same medicine. In

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

the same way the palms were passed all over the body
of the horse, close but not touching. This would
turn aside bullets from him. The hoofs were lifted
and the bottom of the feet treated by the palm pass-
ing. He then would be not easily tired, would be
surefooted, would not step into a hole and fall down.
The palms were passed across the front of the horse's
nose. The medicine made him have a keen sense of
smell and a clear eyesight. This helped him to find
his way without difficulty during darkness or at any
time when running.

The face painting as it was done for me by Red
Haired Bear at my first medicine making was adopted
as my fixed mode of battle preparation in this regard.
It was a black ring about my face, including lower
forehead,, chin and cheeks in its circle. All of the
'surface enclosed in the circle was painted yellow. I
kept at all times right at hand a supply of charcoal
and yellow clay paint. It did not take long for me
to apply them when an occasion for their need might
gome. With this preparation, with my best clothing,
my shield, my eagle wing bone whistle, myself and
my horse protected by the grass seed medicine, I was
almost fearless. I was not entirely so, but almost.
In every time of danger I tried to keep myself
thinking:

'The Great Medicine sees me."

154

Off the Reservation.

After we had been driven from the Black Hills and
that country was given to the white people my father
would not stay on any reservation. He said it was
no use trying to make farms as the white people did.
In the first place, that was not the Indian way of
living. All of our teachings and beliefs were that
land was not made to be owned in separate pieces by
persons and that the plowing up and destruction of
vegetation placed by the Great Medicine and the
planting of other vegetation according to the ideas
of men was an interference with the plans of the
Above. In the second place, it seemed that if the
white people could take away from us the Black
Hills after that country had been given to us and
accepted by us as ours forever, they might take away
from us any other lands we should occupy whenevg:
they might want these other lands. In the third place,
the last great treaty had allowed us to use all of the
country between the Black Hills and the Bighorn
river and mountains as hunting grounds so long as
we did not resist the traveling of white people through
it on their way to or from their lands beyond its

155

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

borders. My father decided to act upon this agree-
ment to us. He decided we should spend all of our
time in the hunting region. We could do this, gain-
ing our own living in this way, or we could be sup-
ported by rations given to us at the agency. He chose
to stay away from all white people. His family all
agreed with him. So, for more than a year before
the great battle at the Little Bighorn we were all the
time in the hunting lands.

Not all of the dissatisfied Indians stayed away from
the reservations. Bands were moving to and from
the hunting grounds at all times, even during the
winter, but only a few remained here throughout the
year. The Indians involved were both Sioux and
Cheyennes, but there were many more Sioux than
Cheyennes. A band of Uncpapas, led by Sitting Bull,
remained entirely away from Dakota. There were at
all times a big camp and some smaller camps of
Ogallalas. Families or small bands of other Sioux
came and went. The Cheyenne camps varied from
thirty or forty lodges to two hundred or more. Dur-
ing the winter before the soldiers came after us the
Gheyennes and Ogallalas kept near^ach other much
of the time. We spent the earlier part of the cold
weather season on Otter creek. Then we moved to-
gether over to Tongue river, setting our two camp
circles near each other on the west side of the river

156

OFF THE RESERVATION

where now id the home place of John Bigheadman,
known also as All See Him.

Sugar, coffee, tobacco, ammunition, everything of
that kind, were scarce with us. We were not greatly
distressed because of this, but we had learned to use
and to like these additions to our old ways, so we
were pleased when such things came to us. We liked
to get ammunition, as that helped us to kill more
game. But, best of all, we liked to get tobacco. We
used the plug tobacco that most white people use
for chewing. We shaved it off in thin layers, using
a board to lay it upon while cutting it. It was mixed
with willow bark. This bark we called kinnikinick.
It was the dried inside layer.

Red Haired Bear had some tobacco, just a little
piece, at one time when a certain very old man came
to visit him. The old man was feeble and shaky.
He was a good man, so Red Haired Bear determined
to give him a treat. The host got out his pipe. "Give
me a knife," he said to his woman. Then, "Get me
the tobacco board." She did as he had asked. He
cut off only a little of the tobacco and mixed it with
plenty of kinnikinick. He loaded his pipe and lit
it. When he had sent puffs to the four directions, to
the Above and to the below spirits, he handed the
pipe to the guest. The old man drew in and let out
one draft. He stopped a moment as if thinking in-

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

tently about something. Then he drew in another
draft. He let out a cloud through his nose.

"Oh, tobacco!" he exclaimed in delight.

He took deep and slow inhalations. He let them
out slowly, by the mouth and by the nose. As Red
Haired Bear took his turn at the pipe the old man
grasped handfuls of the smoke, rubbed together his
palms, sniffed them over and over, rubbed his face
and his clothing. "Good, good," he kept saying.
When the pipeful had been burned he had Red Haired
Bear empty very carefully the ashes, mix some more
kinnikinick willow bark with them and fill the pipe
with this mixture. They had a third smoke of this
kind.

Four men went to the lodge of a certain medicine
man. He told them he had some tobacco, and that
made their hearts glad. He had a chunk of wood
that looked like a plug of tobacco. He put this
piece of wood upon the tobacco board and pretended
to shave off slices from it to mix with kinnikinick.
Even while he was shaving the stick the men were
sniffing and saying, "Oh, good tobacco." They
smoked four pipefuls. The ashes were saved care-
fully. They were mixed then with other kinnikinick
and four more pipefuls were smoked. The four men
went away praising their host for having given them
such fine entertainment.

158

OFF THE RESERVATION

As Gheyennes came to us from the agency they
brought coffee, sugar and tobacco. Other articles
were brought, but these were the most desired. The
luxuries were distributed among friends, small quan-
tities here and there. Someone and another then
would go to the front of his tepee, call out the names
of special friends and invite: "I have tobacco. Come
and smoke with me." Or: "I have coffee and sugar.
Come and feast with me." Sioux might make such
gifts to Cheyennes or Cheyennes might provide them
to the Sioux. Or, members of the two sets of In-
dians might invite each other to smoke or to eat.
Usually, though, the givings and the invitings were
within tribal bounds. Yet every Indian who might
prosper in any way was expected to hold himself al-
ways willing to share and desirous of sharing his
prosperity with his fellows, with all friendly people,
even with avowed enemies if such should come peace-
ably and should be in want. A first principle of
Indian conduct was: Be generous to all Indians.

Last Bull, leading chief of the Fox warriors, came
to us with his family at the last end of the winter.*
He was the first one to disturb our peace of mind
with the announcement:

"Soldiers are coming to fight you."

He said that the whites would fight all Cheyennes

February, 1876.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

and Sioux who were off the reservations. He did
not know from what forts the soldiers would come.
He had not heard who would be their chiefs. But
this did not matter. He and his family stayed with us.
Other Cheyennes came.

We did not believe Last Bull's report. We
thought somebody had told him what was not true.
The treaty allowed us to hunt here as we might wish,
so long as we did not make war upon the whites.
We were not making war upon them. I had not seen
any white man for many months. We were not look-
ing for them. We were trying to stay away from all
white people, and we wanted them to stay away from
us. Our old men said that the reason the white
people wanted us to leave off the roaming and hunt-
ing was that we should stay near them, so they could
sell us more of their goods and their whisky. Our
old men ever were urging the young men not to drink
the whisky. The advice often was disregarded, but
it appeared to be given serious consideration. Up
to that time in my life I never had swallowed a
drink of it.

Lots of buffalo were feeding on the grass at the
upper Tongue and Powder rivers, on all of their
branches and on the other lands in this whole region.
Lots of elk, deer and antelope could be found almost
anywhere the hunter might go to seek them. Lots

160

OFF THE RESERVATION

of colts were being born in our horse herds this
spring. We were rich, contented, at peace with the
whites so far as we knew. Why should soldiers come
out to seek for us and fight us? No, the report seem-
ingly was a mistake.

Spotted Wolf, Medicine Wolf and Twin, three
Cheyenne chiefs, came to us as we camped on Pow-
der river. They advised us to go to our agency.
"Soldiers will come to fight you," they assured us.
We now believed this to be true. The chiefs in our
band had a council. The next day they had another
council.

"No, we shall stay here," they decided. "If sol-
diers come we shall steal their horses. Then they
can not fight us."

Forty lodges of Cheyennes now were in camp on
the west side of Powder river, forty or fifty miles
above where Little Powder river flows into it. The
report brought by the three chiefs aroused us into
watchful activity. Every hunting party was on the
lookout for white soldiers or for their trails. The
women and old people in the camp kept themselves
ever ready for immediate flight.

My older brother Yellow Hair and I went scouting.
We mounted our horses at night and went up the
Powder river valley. As we were creeping and peep-
ing over a hill our horses got away from us. But

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

we kept on afoot. We saw camp fires in a dry gulch
on the east side of Powder river. Some other groups
of Cheyennes were scouting in the same vicinity. A
figure on horseback showed for a moment on a ridge.
White Man? Cheyenne? Other Indian? Must be
a white man, a soldier. Somebody off aside from us
acted quickly.

"Bang!"

The horse and rider went at once out of sight.
My brother and I dropped down and lay quiet a long
time. We talked of stealing soldier horses. Our
own were gone, and we needed mounts. We crawled
along further until we could see a soldier walking
to and fro along the line of their horses, between us
and the animals. He had a rifle. As we conferred
together about what to do, other soldiers came to
the horses. They were getting ready to move.
Within a few minutes the entire body of them were
gone. We went then close to the abandoned camp.
We began to poke up the smoldering fires. Sud-
denly:

"Bang!" The bullet whistled past us.

We ran. Other shots were fired at us. We hur-
ried into a narrow gulch or canyon. As we dodged
from hiding place to hiding place up the gulch we
could see soldiers on horseback following along the
high sides. They were shooting down toward us.

162

OFF THE RESERVATION

But they could not see us. There was a high wind
blowing, the weather was of the blustering kind usual
at that time of year. We hastened on to where the
gulch led to the high bench land. Our pursuers had
left us before we reached this broad area. We were
tired, very tired. We wanted to stop and rest, but
we feared our legs might grow stiff, so we trudged
on. At dawn we heard barking of dogs at our camp.
That was a welcome sound.

"Waoo-oo-oo-oo," we wolf-howled from a hilltop
before we went into the camp. Our alarm brought
out the people. They flocked to our lodge. A coun-
cil of the old men was called. My brother and I were
brought before it. Other young men who had been
out also were at the council. "Young men, what do
you know?" the chiefs asked us. We told them.
We learned that the lone horseman shot during the
night before was a Cheyenne. Another Cheyenne
had sent the bullet. It had gone in at the wrist and
out just below the elbow. The affair was entirely a
case of mistaken identity.

The council of old men decided we should keep
away from the soldiers, not try to fight them. They
sent out an old man herald to proclaim:

"Soldiers have been seen. We think they are
looking for us. Today we move camp far down
the river."

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Our hunters and scouts kept a lookout for the
soldiers. Our camp was moved to a point just above
where Little Powder river flows into Powder river
and on the west side of the larger stream. The sol-
diers went over the hills to the headwaters of Hanging
Woman creek. They followed this stream down to
Tongue river. We felt safe then. Many of our
people thought they were not seeking us at all.

But one day some Cheyennes hunting antelope at
the head of Otter creek, just over the hills west from
our camp, saw the soldiers camped there. The hunt-
ers urged their horses back to warn us. Some of the
horses became exhausted in the run, so their riders
had to come on afoot. A herald notified the people.
All was excitement. The council of old men ap-
pointed ten young men to go out that night and
watch the movements of the soldiers. Others were
out scouting or were awake and watching, but these
ten had the special duty. Most of the people slept,
feeling secure under the protection of the appointed
outer sentinels. Early in the morning an old man
arose and went to the top of a nearby knoll to observe
or to pray, as old men were in the habit of doing.
He had been there only a few moments when he
began shouting toward the camp:

"The soldiers are right here! The soldiers are
right here!"

164

OFF THE RESERVATION

Already the attacking white men were between
the horse herd and the camp. The ten scouts during
the hours of darkness and storm had missed meeting
the soldiers. They found a trail, this trail going up
the creek valley. They turned their horses and
whipped them in the effort to get ahead of the in-
vaders. But the tired horses played out. They did
not catch up with the soldiers until these had ar-
rived at the camp, or afterward.

Women screamed. Children cried for their moth-
ers. Old people tottered and hobbled away to get
out of reach of the bullets singing among the lodges.
Braves seized whatever weapons they had and tried
to meet the attack. I owned a muzzle-loading rifle,
but I had no bullets for it. I owned also a cap-and-
ball six shooter, but I had loaned it to Star, a cousin
who was one of the ten special scouts of the night
before. In turn, he had let me have bow and arrows
he had borrowed from Puffed Cheek. My armament
then consisted of this bow and arrows belonging to
Puffed Cheek.

I skirted around afoot to get at our horse herd.
I looped my lariat rope over the neck of the first
convenient one. It belonged to Old Bear, the old
man chief of our band. But just now it became my
war pony. I quickly made a lariat bridle and mounted
the recovered animal. A few other Cheyennes did

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

the same as I had done. But most of them remained
afoot. I shot arrows at the soldiers. Our people
had not much else to shoot. Only a few had guns
and also ammunition for them.

All of the soldiers who first appeared had white
horses. Another band of them who charged soon
afterward from another direction had only bay horses.
I started back to try to get to my home lodge. I
wanted my shield, my other medicine objects and
whatever else I might be able to carry away. Women
were struggling along burdened with packs of
precious belongings. Some were dragging or carry-
ing their children. All were shrieking in fright.
I came upon one woman who had a pack on her back,
one little girl under an arm and an older girl clinging
to her free right hand. She was crying, both of the
girls were crying, and all three of them were almost
exhausted. They had just dived into a thicket for a
rest when I rode up to them. It was Last Bull's wife
and their two daughters.

* 4 Let me take one of the children," I proposed.

The older girl, age about ten years, was lifted up
behind me. A little further on I picked up also an
eight-year-old boy who was trudging along behind a
mother carrying on her back a baby and under her
arms two other children. The girl behind me clasped
her arms about my waist. I wrapped an arm about

166

OFF THE RESERVATION

the boy in front of me. With my free arm and hand
I guided my horse as best I could. The animal too
was excited by the tumult. It shied and plunged.
But I got the two children out of danger. Then I
went back to help in the fight.

Two Moons, Bear Walks on a Ridge and myself
were together. We centered an attack upon one cer-
tain soldier. Two Moons had a repeating rifle. As
we stood in concealment he stood it upon end io
front of him and passed his hands up and down the
barrel, not touching it, while making medicine. Then
he said: "My medicine is good; watch me kill that
soldier." He fired, but his bullet missed. Bear
Walks on a Ridge then fired his muzzle-loading rifle.
His bullet hit the soldier in the back of the head.
We rushed upon the man and beat and stabbed him
to death. Another Cheyenne joined us to help in
the killing. He took the soldier's rifle. I stripped
off the blue coat and kept it. Two Moons and Bear
Walks on a Ridge took whatever else he had and
they wanted.

One Cheyenne was killed by the soldiers. An-
other had his forearm badly shattered. Braided
Locks, who is yet living, had the skin of one cheek
furrowed by a bullet. The Cheyennes were beaten
away from the camp. From a distance we saw the
destruction of our village. Our tepees were burned,

167

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

with everything in them except what the soldiers
may have taken. Extra flares at times showed the
explosion of powder, and there was the occasional
pop of a cartridge from the fires. The Cheyennes
were rendered very poor. I had nothing left but the
clothing I had on, with the soldier coat added. My
eagle wing bone flute, my medicine pipe, my rifle,
everything else of mine, were gone.

This was in the last part of the winter.* Melted
snow water was running everywhere. We waded
across the Powder river and set off to the eastward.
All of the people except some of the warriors were
afoot. The few young men on horseback stayed be-
hind to guard the other people as they got away.
One old woman, a blind person, was missing. All
others were present except the Cheyenne who had
been killed.

The soldiers did not follow us. That night we
who had horses went back to see what had become
of them. At the destroyed camp we saw one lodge
still standing. We went to it. There was the miss-
ing old blind woman. Her tepee and herself had
been left entirely unharmed. We talked about this
matter, all agreeing that the act showed the soldiers
had good hearts.

* March 17th, 1876. Gen. J. J. Reynolds in command of soldiers.
Historians mistakenly mention this incident as a victory over "Craiy
Horse's village." T. B. M.

168

OFF THE RESERVATION

We found the soldier camp. We found also our
horses they had taken. We crept toward the herd,
out a little distance from the camp. One Cheyenne
would whisper, "I see my horse." Another would
say, "There is mine." Some could not see their own,
but they took whichever ones they could get. I got
my own favorite animal. We made some effort then
to steal some of the horses of the white men. But
they shot at us, so we went away with the part of our
own herd that we could manage. When we returned
with them and caught up with our people we let the
women and some of the old people ride. I gave then
to Chief Old Bear his horse I had captured when the
soldiers first attacked us. He said, "Thank you, my
friend," and he gave the horse to his woman while
he kept on afoot.

We kept going eastward and northward. We
forded the Little Powder river and went upon the
benches beyond. Three nights we slept out. Only
a few had robes. There was but little food, only a
few women having little chunks of dry meat in their
small packs. There was hard freezing at night and
there was mud and water by day. But nobody ap-
peared to become ill from the exposure. Early on
the fourth day we arrived at where we had aimed, a
camp of Ogallala Sioux far up a creek east of Pow-
der river. Three or four Ogallala lodges had been

169

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

beside our Cheyenne camp when the soldiers came.
These people traveling with us led us to their main
camp.

The Ogallalas received us hospitably, as we knew
they would do. Crazy Horse was their principal
chief. Heads of lodges all about the camp were
calling out to us:

"Cheyennes, come and eat here."

They fed us to fullness and gave us temporary
shelter and robes. At night a council was held by
the chiefs of the two bands. At the council our
people told about the soldier attack. It was decided
that the Ogallalas and the Cheyennes should go to-
gether to the Uncpapa Sioux, located northeastward
from us. The next forenoon all of us set out in
that direction. Horses were loaned to the Cheyennes
by the Ogallalas, so none of us had to walk.

Buffalo Bull Sitting Down, known to the white
people as Sitting Bull, was the principal chief of
the Uncpapas in that camp. There were more of
them than of Cheyennes and Ogallalas combined.
When we arrived there they set up at once two big
special lodges in the center of their camp circle. Our
men were placed in one of these lodges, our women
in the other. In each lodge sat a circle of Cheyennes
about the inner wall. Uncpapa women had set their
pots to boiling when first we had been seen. Now

170

OFF THE RESERVATION

they came with meat. They kept on coming, com-
ing, with more and more meat. We were filled up,
and we had plenty extra to keep for another day.
An Uncpapa herald went riding about the camp and
calling out:

"The Cheyennes are very poor. All who have
blankets or robes or tepees to spare should give to
them."

Crowds of women and girls came with gifts. A
ten-year-old Uncpapa girl put a buffalo robe in front
of me and left it there. It was mine now. An
Uncpapa man gave my father a medicine pipe to re-
place his lost one. I did not receive that kind of
present, but I was provided with every important
comfort. Whoever needed any kind of clothing got
it immediately. They flooded us with gifts of every-
thing needful. Crowds of their men and women
were going among us to find out and to supply our
wants.

"Who needs a blanket?"

"I do."

"Take this one."

"Who wants this tepee?"

"Give it to me."

"It is yours."

They brought horses lots of horses.

"Who wants a horse?"

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

"I."

"You may have this one."

Qh, what good hearts they had! I never can
forget the generosity of Sitting Bull's Uncpapa Sioux
on that day.

Our women's backs were burdened and our gift
horses were loaded as we went to the nearby place
assigned to us for the setting up of our own camp
circle. Every household had a lodge, the same as
had been the case at our lost camp. Some of the
new tepees were small, but they served all necessary
purposes until we could get buffalo skins for making
larger ones.

This triple camp was fifty or more miles east of
Powder river, on east from a big and tall white stone
which the white people call Chalk Butte. It was
at the headwaters of a stream flowing westward into
Powder river. The Cheyennes had been three sleeps
on the way to the Ogallalas. One sleep there. Three
sleeps of travel by Cheyennes and Ogallalas to the
Uncpapa camp. Five or six sleeps the three tribes
stayed together at this place.

Various scouting parties went out to find out where
were the soldiers. Eight or ten of us Cheyennes
went to Tongue river and beyond. At Tongue river
we stopped for a daytime rest. Our horses were
picketed out to graze. After a while they began to

172

OFF THE RESERVATION

show signs of alarm. A Cheyenne went out to look.
He saw a lone white man afoot among the herd.
Indian horses were afraid of white people, so they
were snorting. The Cheyenne approached the white
man and called out:

"How!"

"How," the white man responded.

They shook hands. The Cheyenne got his own
horse, mounted it, and asked the white man to go
with him to the other Indians. They set off, the
Cheyenne on horseback, the white man afoot. The
Stranger had a six shooter in a scabbard at his belt,
but he made no offer to use it. He appeared friendly.
He was thin and hungry-looking. His clothing was
very ragged. The other Cheyennes got their horses,
and they all gathered about the newcomer. Some
of them mounted their horses, others stood afoot
holding them.

"Who are you?" a Cheyenne signed.

The white man could make signs, but not very
well. He made us understand him, though. He said
he had been a soldier, but he got lost from them. He
told us he had not fought us, as he had been lost
before that time. He said the ragged clothing he
had on was taken from a dead Sioux, as he did not
want to be seen with soldier clothing. One Chey-
enne kept saying, in our language, "Let's kill him."

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

But nobody agreed with him. Finally he jerked up
his rifle and fired. The white man fell dead. Others
then cut him and beat him, so that no one man could
have the blame nor receive the honor.

Robbing the body was the next step. About all
he had was the six shooter, some cartridges for it,
and a little package tied to his belt. It had meat
in it. It was horse meat and had been cooked in
an open blazing fire. We threw it away.

This man was killed not many miles down the
Tongue river from my present home place. The
exact spot is on a ranch where now lives a white man
named Wolf. The place is on Tongue river below
the present town of Ashland, Montana.

HISTORICAL NOTE

A sketch of the military campaign of 1876 against the roam-
ing Sioux and Cheyennes is interposed here for the enlighten-
ment of such readers as may not be familiar with the frontier
history of that period. There is nothing new in this sketch; it
is simply a synopsis of what heretofore has been accepted and
published.

After the Indian troubles during and immediately following
our civil war, in 1868 a treaty was made with the Sioux and
Cheyenne tribes of the northern plains country. A few of the
Sioux, mainly a band of Uncpapas led by Sitting Bull, refused
to go into the treaty council. Various reservations in the Da-
kotas were agreed upon as belonging exclusively to the various
tribes of Indians involved. All lands lying westward of these
reservations, as far as the Bighorn river and Bighorn mountains,
in Montana, were to be hunting grounds for the Indians as long
as wild game in abundance remained there.

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OFF THE RESERVATION

Bands of these Dakota red people were going out to the
hunting grounds and returning again from time to time. Some
of them elected to remain most of the time, or all of the time,
in the Montana open country. Sitting Bull and a few others
like him stayed entirely away from the agencies. They were
actuated partly by resentment and partly by a sincere desire to
avoid conflict that regularly resulted from prolonged contiguity
of Indians and whites.

The Cheyennes and the Ogallala Sioux were assigned to the
Black Hills country as their reservation forever, according to
the terms of the treaty. Soon afterward it became apparent
that rich gold fields were hidden away somewhere in the lands
conceded to them. In 1874, obedient to orders from Washing-
ton, General George A. Custer led his Seventh cavalry from Fort
Lincoln, Dakota, on an exploratory expedition into the Cheyenne*
Ogallala country. They found ample verification of the rumors
as to the presence of gold there. The news spread rapidly, and
there was a rush of white men fortune-seekers into the midst of
these Indian possessions.

The government made a weak effort to restrain the intruders.
But the eager migrants flooded in and burst through the flimsy
military barriers. The vexing problem was dodged by moving
the Indians to other lands. But not all of them went to the
designated new reservations. Many of them, angered at what
they deemed a wrongful ousting, took their tepees and their
families and went to live altogether in the open hunting regions.
Indians from other reservations did likewise. That was the
beginning of the "Indian uprising 9 ' of 1876.

In December, 1875, pursuant to our governmental policy,
General Sherman, then commander-in-chief of the United States
army, issued an important general order. He proclaimed that
all Indians found off their reservations after the last day of
January, 1876, would be regarded as hostiles to be fought by
the military forces. It being evident that not many of the
Dakota roamera in Montana would return to the reservations
until they were forced to do so, bodies of soldiers were set in

175

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

modem for seeking out and driving these wanderers back within
their assigned territorial bounds.

The active military field leaders in this campaign were Briga-
dier-General Terry, Brigadier-General Crook, Colonel Gibbon
and Lieutenant-Colonel Custer. Each of these four officers had
been brevetted Major-General of Volunteers during the civil
war, but the contracting of the army after the war set each of
them back to a lower ranking. Terry had infantry from Fort
Rice and Ouster's Seventh cavalry, from Fort Lincoln, Dakota.
Crook had a force of cavalry and infantry at Fort Fetterman,
Wyoming. Gibbon had infantry from Fort Shaw and cavalry
from Fort Ellis, Montana.

From their three basic points in Dakota, in Wyoming and in
Montana the three bodies of soldiers moved toward a common
central area between the Powder and Bighorn rivers, in Mon-
tana, where the Indians being sought were roaming. Details of
these military movements are too extensive for review here. The
most thrilling phase of the campaign began when Custer and his
Seventh cavalry set off up the Rosebud valley to follow a recent
Indian trail. The result of this subsidiary proceeding was the
supreme tragedy in the annals of our American frontier warfare.

The first fight of that 1876 struggle was this attack upon the
Cheyenne camp on Powder river, March 17th. There have been
published many worthy books recounting the military operations
of that year. Reliable edification on this subject may be found
in General Godfrey's magazine articles, in Colonel Graham's
"The Story of the Little Bighorn," in Grinnell's "The Fighting
Cheyennes," in Brininstool's "A Trooper with Custer," in the
diaries of Lieutenants Bradley and McClernand, and in some
other published writings.* These tell the stirring story of where
our soldiers went and what they did during that eventful sum-
mer. Wooden Leg tells the equally stirring story of where the
Indians went and what they did during that same time.

THOMAS B. MARQUIS,

* EDITOR'S Nora: The interested reader will find also much enlight-
enment in Dr. Marquis' "Soldiering in the Old West, 19 to be published
soon by The Midwest Company.

176

VI

Swarming of Angered Indians

A band of Minneconjoux Sioux arrived at the
Uncpapa camp either just before or just after we
got there. They had not been troubled by the sol-
diers, but they wanted to keep out of trouble. Lame
Deer was their principal chief. The Cheyennes were
well acquainted with the Minneconjoux. We had
camped and hunted with them many times. There
were some intermarriages with them, so there were
a few Cheyennes among them and a few of their
people belonging to our tribe. We had mingled with
them almost* as much as we had with the Ogallalas.
We never had associated closely with the Uncpapas.
They were almost strangers to us. We knew of
them only by hearsay from the Ogallalas and the
Minneconjoux.

The movement to the Uncpapas was because they
had a much larger band in the hunting grounds than
had any of the other tribes. Some of them, with
Sitting Bull as their leader, had been out all of the
time for several years. At this first assembling, the
Ogallala band was in number next to the Uncpapas.
The Minneconjoux had not quite as many as had the

177

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Ogallalas. The Cheyenne band was the smallest.
During past times, when the Cheyennes and the Ogal-
lalas and the Burned Thighs (Brule Sioux) had
fought the white soldiers many times in the country
farther southward, not many of the Uncpapas had
been with them. These people kept mostly at peace
by staying away from all white settlements. Now
it was becoming generally believed among Indians
that this was the best plan.

Sitting Bull had come into notice as the most con-
sistent advocate of the idea of living out of all touch
with white people. He would not go to the reserva-
tion nor would he accept any rations or other gifts
coming from the white man government. He rarely
went to the trading posts. Himself and his followers
were wealthy in food and clothing and lodges, in
everything needful to an Indian. They did not lose
any horses nor other property in warfare, because
they had not any warfare. He had come now into
admiration by all Indians as a man whose medicine
was good that is, as a man having a kind heart and
good judgment as to the best course of conduct. He
was considered as being altogether brave, but peace-
able. He was strong in religion the Indian religion.
He made medicine many times. He prayed and
fasted and whipped his flesh into submission to the
'will of the Great Medicine. So, in attaching our-

178

SWARMING OF ANGERED INDIANS

selves to the Uncpapas we other tribes were not moved
by a desire to fight. They had not invited us. They
simply welcomed us. We supposed that the com-
bined camps would frighten off the soldiers. We
hoped thus to be freed from their annoyance. Then
we could separate again into the tribal bands and
resume our quiet wandering and hunting.

The four camps could not remain long together in
any one location. The food game would become
scarce there and the feed for our horses would be
eaten away. We had to move on. A council of all
of the tribal chiefs decided we should go northward
to the head of the next stream flowing into the east
side of Powder river. The next morning after the
decision had been made, the four different bands set
off in procession toward the appointed place.

The Cheyennes were in the lead. The Ogallalas
came next. Following them were the Minneconjoux.
The Uncpapas were last. The order of movement
was the result of an agreed plan. The Cheyennes
and the Uncpapas had the specially danger-fill posi-
tions. I do not know on just what grounds this was
the arrangement, but I know that this was the inten-
tion. The Cheyennes kept scouts out in front looking
forward from high points. The Uncpapas had al-
ways some of their young men staying back to observe
if any enemies were following. The Ogallalas and

179

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

the Minneconjoux sent guardians off to the hill points
at the sides.

Three sleeps, I believe, our four camp circles stood
in this new location. The Cheyennes in advance had
been allowed to choose first the spot for the encamp-
ment. The Ogallalas and the Minneconjoux then
located themselves only a little distance from us and
from each other. The Uncpapas placed their circle
on whatever good ground was left and on ground
most suitable for guarding that side of the combined
body of Indians. In the camping as well as in the
traveling, the Cheyennes and the Uncpapas occupied
the specially exposed positions.

The scarcity of feed for our horses led the council
into a decision to move on yet farther northward.
As I remember it, we spent one sleep in temporary
camp during this movement as well as in the first
combined shift of base. Our horses were weak for
lack of food, so we had to travel slowly. We stopped
at the upper regions of the next creek tributary to
Powder river. I believe we stayed there three sleeps.

The Arrows All Gone Sioux (the Sans Arcs) came
to us at this camping place. Five camp circles now
were in close communion. The number of people
in this added band was about the same as in the Ogal-
lalla or the Minneconjoux organizations. In the
case of each of the five tribes, only a part of their

180

SWARMING OF ANGERED INDIANS

members were here. But in each case more were
coming from time to time while few or none were
going back to the reservations. I believe the num-
ber of Cheyenne lodges now must have been increased
to fifty. The Ogallalas, Minneconjoux and Arrows
All Gone each had more, perhaps sixty or seventy.
The comparative size of the Uncpapa circle indicated
they might have had as many as a hundred and fifty
lodges.

After three or four sleeps the five camps moved
again. This time we swerved to the northwestward.
Our stopping place now was lower down on the next
creek flowing into Powder river. New grass was
beginning to peep up here. Our hungry horses
searched greedily for it. The herder boys were kept
busy at keeping them from rambling too far. The
tribal herds were kept separate, boys or youths from
each tribe guarding their own bands.

The Blackfeet Sioux joined us here, I believe. I
am not sure of the exact place where they came, but
I can not recollect any other point where they might
have come. I recall clearly, though, that wheft we
got to Powder river there were six camp circles, the
Blackfeet Sioux making up the sixth one. Theirs
was not a very large circle, but it was a separate one.
They camped close to the Uncpapas.

Many extra horses were brought in by some of the

181

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

newly arriving Indians. I think most of them were
brought by the Blackfeet Sioux, or perhaps by the
Arrows All Gone. But wherever they were needed
by members of other tribes they were distributed
out as gifts.

A few Waist and Skirt Indians * attached them-
selves to us. They were known also as No Clothing
people, because their men had no clothing. They
were extremely poor, having but little property and
no horses. They had plenty of dogs big dogs to
drag or to carry their tepees and other scant prop-
erty. Their tribal name, as known to us, arose from
their women having dresses made up in two parts.
Other Indian women made up their dresses in one
piece. I heard Cheyennes talk about Sitting Bull's
father being with these people. He may have been
there, but I do not remember having seen him.
These Indians had small tepees, and their lodge poles
were placed with the butt ends up. They camped
all the time in a little group beside the Uncpapa cir-
cle. Some Assiniboines also were mingled with the
Uncpapas, and others of them were with the Black-
feet Sioux. A few Burned Thigh tepees were with
the Ogallalas and the Blackfeet Sioux. Many of the
incoming Indians talked of having been north of Elk

* Santee Sioux, Wahpeton group, refugees from Minnesota, dwelling
In Canada.

182

SWARMING OF ANGERED INDIANS

river.* Some of the talk I had heard was that they
had been searching there for us. As I remember it,
the extra horse bands were brought from the north
side of that stream.

Chief Lame White Man and a big band of other
Cheyennes came to us at Powder river. They had
made a long journey out from the White River
agency. They had been looking for us all about the
heads of the Powder, Tongue and Rosebud rivers.
They doubled back and found our trail east of Pow-
der river. They had not learned of the soldier at-
tack upon our Cheyenne camp.

Lame White Man did not belong to the Northern
Cheyenne tribe, but he had been much of the time
with us. He was a big chief or an old man chief of
the Southern Cheyennes. He was not a chief with
us, but he was a wise and good man. For this reason
he had much influence among us, even as an adviser
to our chiefs. His wife and family were with him, and
their lodge became a part of our growing camp circle.

From Powder river our course was directed west-
ward. We went over the hill country. The grass
was coming up everywhere, and our horses were
growing stronger. I believe we camped in two or
three places between there and the Tongue river, one
sleep at each place. Individual hunters and small

*Thc universal Indian name for the Yellowstone river.

183

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

hunting parties were gathering meat for their fam-
ilies. Even when we stopped for but one sleep at
any place, all of the camp circles were formed and
all of the lodges set up. It was the taking down,
moving and setting up again every day of a little
city.

A big band of additional Cheyennes came to us
on Tongue river. They were led by Dirty Moccasins,
an old man chief. They had crossed Powder river,
journeyed over the divide west of it to Otter creek and
followed this stream down to Tongue river. Our
camp was thirty or forty miles down from where
Otter creek flows into the river. Straggling lodges
had been reaching us, but this was the largest an-
nexation in any one group. Our Cheyenne circle
now was double what it had been when we first joined
the Uncpapas. The other circles likewise were grow-
ing in the same way. These Cheyennes brought
extra ammunition, sugar, coffee and tobacco.

Going on west from Tongue river, we stopped sev-
eral days, perhaps four or five sleeps, at the upper
part of a stream we knew as Wood creek. It is the
first creek of importance west of Tongue river and
flowing, I believe, into Elk river. Our horses now
were getting much grass. As the main part of the
herds grazed, the men were hunting. Big parties of
Indians killed lots of buffalo in this neighborhood.

184

SWARMING OF ANGERED INDIANS

There were many thousands of these animals here.
The Cheyennes made a special effort to get a plen-
tiful supply of robes for making larger lodges. The
smaller ones given to our people by the Uncpapas
had been comfortable, but larger ones were more
comfortable. We also got skins for robes. Men
and women all were busy, the men at hunting and
the women at tanning the skins.

Councils of the chiefs of the six tribes assembled
together were held at each place of camping. They
talked of whatever might be of general interest. Par-
ticularly, a council settled where we should go next,
at each move. We had not set out to go into any
special region. The moves depended upon reports
of hunting parties or scouts. They learned and re-
ported where was most of such game as we wert
seeking.

Many young men were anxious to go for fighting
the soldiers. But the chiefs and old men all urged
us to keep away from the white men. They said
that fighting wasted energy that ought to be applied
in looking only for food and clothing, trying only
to feed and make comfortable ourselves and our fam-
ilies. Our combination of camps was simply for
defense. We were within our treaty rights as hunt-
ers. We must keep ourselves so.

From Wood creek we went yet westward to the

185

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

upper part of what we called Sioux creek. Here we
stayed but one sleep and followed the same direction
the next day. All of the people were on horses or
on lodge-pole travois dragged by horses. All of the
personal or family belongings were in travois baskets
or on the backs of special pack horses. We had not
any wagons. Such vehicles could not have been used
in most of the country that Indians inhabited then.

We arrived at the Rosebud river or large creek
about the middle of May, I believe. I did not know
then anything about a calendar, but judging from
my recollection of the condition of the grass and the
tree.s, about the weather and other natural conditions,
that must have been about the time.* Many times
during the later years of peace I have been up and
down that valley, on my way to and fro between the
reservation and the town of Forsythe, so I with other
Cheyennes have kept exactly in mind all of the old
camping places along this stream.

The first Rosebud camping place of the six great
circles of Indians was about seven or eight miles up
from Elk river. The Uncpapa circle at that time
was partly on the land where now is a ranch house

* Thomas H. Leforge and his Crow scouts learned that the hostile
Indians arrived on the Rosebud about May 19th, 1876. They observed
a great camp there on May 26th. A few days later this camp was
gone. Lieutenant Bradley's diary records these facts. Bradley, Le-
forge and the Crow scouts were of the Gibbon forces, located then on
the north side of the Yellowstone river. T. B. M.

186

SWARMING OF ANGERED INDIANS

occupied by white people. The place now is known
as the James Kennedy place, as a white man having
that name lived there during many years. The
Uncpapa circle extended from the present location
of this house out across the present highway road
and upon the bench eastward. The Cheyennes were
camped about a mile and a half up the valley from
Sitting Bull's Uncpapas. Our location included a
line of trees such as yet are there extending from
the creek across the road east of it. An old white
man named Eugene Noyes was living there a few
years ago, in a house just off a short distance south-
west from that old Cheyenne camp site. The other
four circles were at four different places between the
Uncpapas and the Cheyennes. All of them were on
the east side of the creek.

Charcoal Bear, chief jnedicine man of the North-
ern Cheyennes, came to us at this first Rosebud camp.
Lots of our people were with him. He brought the
tribal medicine lodge and our sacred Buffalo Head
and all other of our tribal medicine objects. The
lodge was set up in the midst of our camp circle. It
put good thoughts and good feeling into the hearts
of all Cheyennes.

I have heard in later yaars that soldiers from north
of Elk river came across and saw our camp here. But
I never knew of any soldiers having been seen by

1ST

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT OUSTER

any of the Indians in this region. We did lots of
buffalo hunting all across from Tongue river and
continued to kill many of them on the hills west
of the Rosebud. I did not hear any talk of the buf-
falo or other game showing signs of having been
alarmed by any other people. Six or seven sleeps,
I believe, we .stayed here. Then we moved up the
valley about twelve miles.

At this second Rosebud camp the Uncpapa circle
was on land just across the present highway road
westward from and almost in front of a school house
now standing east of the road. A mile and a half
or more on up the valley was the Cheyenne circle.
Between them, all on the east side of the creek, were
the other four tribal circles. On this Cheyenne camp-
ing ground I had been in a camp of our people ten
years before this, when I was a boy. Here Crazy
Mule had made medicine and had done some won-
derful acts. Here also at that past time a Cheyenne
woman had gone out eastward up a wooded gulch
and had hanged herself.

While we now were at this second Rosebud com-
bined camp a report was brought in that Crows had
been seen in our vicinity. A herald rode about our
camp circle making the announcement. It was
agreed our Crazy Dog warriors should go out to find
them. The Crazy Dogs built a bonfire and had a

188

SWARMING OF ANGERED INDIANS

preparatory dance. All of them stripped naked and
painted their bodies. All of them danced barefooted.
It was considered wonderful that they could do this
without getting cactus thorns into their feet. As
the dance was going on it began to become known
that the report of Crows was a mistake, that nobody
had seen them. The war dance was ended and the
bonfire died down. It may have been that Crows
actually had been seen, as I have learned in later
times that some of them were scouting as helpers for
soldiers north of Elk river.

After one sleep at the second Rosebud camp we
traveled on up the valley another twelve or fifteen
miles. This time the Uncpapas occupied land now
on both sides of the highway road and to the west
and south of a painted peak the white people now
call Teat butte. The other camps were scattered
irregularly on up the valley, all yet on the east side
of the creek. It was about a mile and a half from
the lower or last Uncpapa site to the upper or ad-
vanced Cheyenne site. Only one sleep here. The
next forenoon the Cheyennes headed again a pro-
cession up the Rosebud valley.

The fourth Rosebud camp was at and above the
place where now the main highway from Forsythe
forks to go toward Lame Deer and toward Ashland.
The lower or northern end of the group, the site of

189

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Sitting Bull's people, was on the benchland by the
present roadside east and northeast from the forks.
Four camp circles were, as usual, somewhere between
them and the Cheyennes in front and the Uncpiapas
at the rear. One of the Sioux camps was on the west
side of the creek, the first time any of the circles
had been set up on that side. The Cheyennes were
about a mile east of where a roadside trading store
in late years has been managed by a white man named
Parkins. We were at the mouth of a stream flowing
into the Rosebud and known now as Greenleaf creek.
Our circle was only about a mile southward from the
Uncpapas. The others were in an irregular curve be-
tween us. All of the Indians had been using the dirty
yellow water of Rosebud creek, but now the Chey-
ennes had better water from Greenleaf creek. While
we were here, some nore Cheyennes arrived from
the reservation. They told us:

"Lots of soldiers are being sent to fight the In-
dians."

Three sleeps I remained with our people at this
camp. Great bands of Sioux went buffalo hunting
among the hills and small mountains west of the
Rosebud. I went hunting also, but I did not go
there. Eleven Cheyennes, including myself, got our
pack horses and set out over the low pass to Tongue
river. We were on the lookout for soldiers or signs

190

SWARMING OF ANGERED INDIANS

of them, but we did not want to fight them. We had
our war bags, of course, but Indians did not take pack
horses when going out to fight.

Two or three days after we had left our people
they moved on up the Rosebud. This time the camp
circles extended from just above the present Toohey
ranch to a point about a mile and a half up the valley
from that place. As usual, the Uncpapas were at
the last end while the Cheyennes were at the first
or upper end. The Uncpapas were on the east side
of the creek, just west of the present main highway.
The Cheyennes at the upper end of the group were
on the west side of the creek, on a bench, a mile or
so across west from the road. I was not there at the
time, but this place is only ten or twelve miles north
of our present reservation, so I have learned all about
it from other Cheyennes as we have traveled up and
down the road now there.

At this camp the Uncpapas had a Great Medicine
dance. No other Indians took part in it, but great
throngs of people from the other camp circles as-
sembled to look on. This Great Medicine dance, or
sun dance, as the white people call it, was held about
a quarter of a mile west of the present highway that
extends along the valley. The medicine lodge was
pitched just north from the Uncpapa camp circle.
Its exact site was on a flat bottom by the creek about

191

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

a quarter of a mile south by southwest from the pres-
ent Toohey ranch house. By the present roadside,
just below the Toohey ranch house, is a signboard
that tells people, "Custer camped here June 23,
1876." The place where Sitting Bull's people had
their Great Medicine dance is only half a mile south-
west from this roadside signboard.

A few miles up the valley from this camp site are
the deer medicine rocks. They are three or four
miles below the present reservation northern gate.
They may be seen about a mile west of the present
road and off from the base of the hills. They are
about half a mile or farther southwest from the big
ranch house of a white man named Bailey. In the
old times, both Cheyennes and Sioux had reverence
for these separated cliff towers. As hunters were
about to go for deer or antelope, they assembled on
horseback and grouped around the deer medicine
rocks. There they looked up to the tops and made
prayers for success in the oncoming hunt. It is prob-
able that the Indians at that camping time paid the
usual respect to this old-time place of worship. But
I do not know. I was not there. I then was travel-
ing up the Tongue river valley, with ten other Chey-
enne buffalo hunters.

192

VII

Soldiers from the Southward.

Our party of eleven buffalo hunters went over the
same low pass that is traversed by the road now
going from the Rosebud to Tongue river and Ashland.
We did not find any big herd of buffalo. We had
killed only four by the time we arrived at Hanging
Woman creek. We decided then to go on over to
Powder river. We followed Powder river almost up
to the mouth of Lodgepole creek. On the way we
came across a dead Indian on a burial scaffold. The
body had been stripped of all wrappings and of cloth-
ing. We wondered if this had been a Sioux, a Crow
or a Shoshone. We wondered also who had robbed
the body.

One of our men named Lame Sioux went out to
a hill for a look over the country. Pretty soon he
began to signal. He had seen a camp of soldiers.
All of us got out to look. Yes, this was a soldier
camp. We dropped back into hiding. Ourselves and
our horses all were put into concealment until dark-
ness came. Then we dressed ourselves, painted our-
selves and went on a night scout for a closer view.
We saw the camp fires burning. We worked our way

193

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

carefully toward them. It was after the middle of
the night when we arrived at a point where we could
see well the entire scene. But all of the soldiers then
were gone.

We slept then until morning came. When we went
to the abandoned camp-site the first thing to arouse
our special interest was a beef carcass having yet on
the bones many fragments of meat. The next in-
teresting object was a box of hard crackers. It had
been raining, and they were wet, but this made them
all the better. We ate what we wanted of them.
We cooked pieces of the beef on the fire coals. We
enjoyed a fine breakfast. Then we set out on the
trail of the soldiers.

The trail led us northwestward over the divide and
down Crow creek. Near where Crow creek empties
into Tongue river we saw the soldier camp.* The
time was late in the afternoon. We retreated and
skirted around up the river. At dusk we crossed it
to the west side. The water was running high. We
stripped and tied our clothing in bundles about our
necks. We sat upon our riding horses and led our
pack horses as they swam through the lively current.
We hid ourselves among the trees on that side of the
valley and slept until ^morning.

* Prairie Dog creek? Finerty writes that the soldiers were camped
there June 8th. T. B. M.

194

SOLDIERS FROM THE SOUTHWARD

From a cliff the next morning we saw first a band
of about twenty Indians riding away from the soldier
camp. Were they Crows? Were they Shoshones?
We exchanged guesses, but we did not know. We
talked among ourselves about making an attack upon
them. There was some talk of trying to steal soldier
horses. We were anxious to do something warlike,
to get horses or to count coups. But the general
agreement was that it was too risky. We considered
it most important that we return and notify our
people on the Rosebud. We did not want to tire out
our horses in an effort to get others or to get fighting
honors. But we lingered to do some more looking.
We saw soldiers walking about their camp. It had
been flooded by the high waters. They were splash-
ing about here and there and appeared to be getting
ready to travel. We decided it was time for us also
to travel.

Six of us, including myself, started out toward the
hills between us and the uppermost Rosebud. The
five other Cheyennes remained behind to see where
the soldiers might go. During the day two of these
came on and joined us. Before night the final tKree
were with us. "They are coming in this direction,"
the three reported. We then were on the upper small
branches of Rosebud creek.

We killed a buffalo there. We hurried in cutting

195

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

from it some of the choice pieces. We quickly divided
up the liver and ate the raw segments. Over a hastily
built fire we scantily toasted little chunks of buffalo
meat. As we devoured them we spoke but few words.
Whatever speech was uttered was in jerky sputter-
ings. Everybody was excited. Every minute or two
somebody was jumping up to go somewhere and look
for pursuing soldiers. After the food had been bolted
we hastened to move on. When darkness had well
advanced we stopped for the night. Our horses
needed rest and food. We picketed them. We felt
safe during the night, so we slept soundly.

Before the sun was up we were several miles on
down the Rosebud valley. We did not know just
where our people were, but we knew they were some-
where on this stream. We found them strung along
from the location of our present Indian dance hall
there up almost to the present home of Porcupine.
We wolf -howled and aroused the people. Cheyennes
flocked to learn why we had given the alarm. We
went on into camp and reported to an old man. Some
Sioux were there, and they carried the news to their
people. Soon all of the camp circles were in a fever
of excitement. Heralds in all of them were riding
about and shouting:

"Soldiers have been seen. They are coming in this
direction. Indians are with them/ 5

196

SOLDIERS FROM THE SOUTHWARD

Councils were called. Lots of young men wanted
to go out and fight the soldiers, but the chiefs would
not allow this. Our chiefs appointed Little Hawk,
Crooked Nose and two or three others to go scouting
and find out about the further movements of the
white men. Maybe some Sioux scouts also were sent
out. I do not know, but I think they depended upon
the Cheyennes to do the work.

The Indians all moved camp, going on up the
valley about ten miles. Here the Cheyennes chose
for their location a spot on the east side of the Rose-
bud, just across from the present Davis creek and on
the land now occupied by Rising Sun. The Sioux
following them set their circles on down the creek, the
Uncpapas being below the present Busby school.
My recollection is we stayed here more than one
sleep, but I am not sure. When we left this place we
went westward up Davis creek and across the hills be-
side it, going toward the dividing hills separating us
from the Little Bighorn river. It was understood
we were on our way to that valley.

We camped that afternoon just east of the divide.
The place is about a mile north of the present road
there, the camps extending northward up a broad
coulee full of plum thickets. Dry camp, no water, at
this place. One sleep here. The next morning we
went on over the divide and down the slopes to what

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

we called Great Medicine Dance creek, but known
now to the white people as Reno creek. We stopped
where the main forks of the creek come together.
Our circles were formed along the valley and on the
bench. The Cheyennes were at the advance or west
end, the Uncpapas at the rear or east end. From our
camp to theirs the distance was about two miles.
The grouped camps centered about where the
present road crosses a bridge at the fork of the creek.*

Little Hawk and the other scouts returned to us
here. They reported the soldiers as being on the
upper branches of the Rosebud. The Sioux were told
of this report, or they may have had information from
scouts of their own. Heralds in all six of the camps
rode about and told the people. The news created
an unusual stir. Women packed up all articles ex-
cept such as were needed for immediate use. Some
of them took down their tepees and got them ready
for hurrying away if necessary. Additional watchers
were put among the horse herds. Young men wanted
to go out and meet the soldiers, to fight them. The
chiefs of all camps met in one big council. After a
while they sent heralds to call out:

"Young men, leave the soldiers alone unless they
attack us."

Wooden Leg, Big Beaver and Limpy, each on a separate occasion,
went with me and pointed out the exact locations of the 1876 Indian
campings on the Rosebud and the Little Bighorn. T. B. M.

198

SOLDIERS FROM THE SOUTHWARD

But as darkness came on we slipped away. Many
bands of Cheyenne and Sioux young men, with some
older ones, rode out up the south fork toward the
head of Rosebud creek. Warriors came from every
camp circle. We had our weapons, war clothing,
paints and medicines. I had my six-shooter^ We
traveled all night.

We found the soldiers * about seven or eight
o'clock in the morning, I believe. We had slept
only a little, our horses were very tired, so we did not
hurry our attack. But always in such cases there
are eager or foolish ones who begin too soon. Not
long after we arrived there was fighting on the hill-
sides and on the little valley where was the soldier
camp. In this early fighting, one young Cheyenne
foolishly charged too far, and some Indians belong-
ing to the soldiers got after him. They shot and
crippled his horse. I and some other Cheyennes
drove back the pursuers. I took the young man be-
hind me on my horse, and we hurried away to our
main body of warriors.

Jack Red Cloud, son of the old Ogallala Chief Red
Cloud, was wearing a warbonnet. His horse was
killed. According to the Indian way, in such case the

* General Crook's soldiers, June 17th, 1876. Historians have copied
each other in repetitions that the hostiles here were "Crazy Horse and
his Ogallalas," and that they were from the "Crazy Horse village" sap-
posed to have been only a short distance down the Rosebud. T. B. M.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

warrior was supposed to stop and take off the bridle
from the killed horse, to show how cool he could con-
duct himself. But young Red Cloud forgot to do
this. He went running as soon as his horse fell.
Three Crows on horseback followed him, lashed him
with their pony whips and jerked- off and kept his
warbonnet. They did not try to kill him. They
only teased him, telling him he was a boy and ought
not to be wearing a warbonnet. Some of his Sioux
friends interfered, and the Crows went away. The
Sioux told us that young Red Cloud was crying and
asking mercy from the Crows. He was my same age,
eighteen years old.*

White Wolf, a Cheyenne almost thirty years old,
had a repeating rifle. In drawing this weapon from
its scabbard at his left side it was accidentally dis-
charged. The bullet broke his left thigh bone. He
finally recovered and is yet living (1930). He still
limps on account of that accidental wound.

Until the sun went far toward the west there were
charges back and forth. Our Indians fought and ran
away, fought and ran away. The soldiers and their
Indian scouts did the same. Sometimes we chased
them, sometimes they chased us. One time, as I was

*The Crow aspect of this same story was told to me by Along the
Hillside, an old Crow man who was a scout with Crook. He was one
of the pursuers who jerked the warbonnet from the amateur Sioux.
T.B.M.

200

SOLDIERS FROM THE SOUTHWARD

getting away from a charge, I caught up with a Chey-
enne afoot and driving his tired horse ahead of him.
My horse also was very tired, so I dismounted and we
two' drove our'mounts into a brush thicket. There we
rested a while. It appeared that all of the Cheyennes
were in hiding just then.

Chief Lame White Man, the old Southern Chey-
enne, rode out into the open on horseback. He
called to us for brave actions. Our young men had
high regard for him. The Cheyennes came out from
hiding and went flocking to him. I and my com-
panion joined them. It then became the turn of the
soldiers and their Indians to get out of our way.

The soldiers finally left the field and went back
southward, on the trail where they had come to this
place. Some Sioux and Cheyennes followed them a
short distance, but not far. The soldiers lost or left
behind some of the packs from their mules.* We got
crackers and bacon and other food material. I found
a good white hat and a good pair of gloves. I picked
up a little package of something and stuffed it under
my belt. As I went riding away, the package rubbed
between the belt and my body. The day was hot, and
I was sweating freely. My nostrils perceived a
pleasant odor. I traced it to the package. I took it

*Finerty writes that Crook had 1,000 pack mules, and that the
Crows and Shoshones joined him on June 14th, at the Goose Creek
camp.T. B.M.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

from my belt, sniffed at it, then fumbled at the heavy
paper and tore off a corner.

"Oh, coffee!" My heart was glad. I had some-
thing good to take as a gift for my mother.

The only naked Cheyenne in that battle was Black
Sun. All of the rest of us had on whatever war
clothing he owned. I do not recollect having seen
there any Sioux who was not dressed in his best. But
Black Sun had a special medicine painting for him-
self. He spent a long time at getting ready. All of
his body was colored yellow. On his head he wore
the stuffed skin of a weasel. He wrapped a blanket
about his loins. The soldiers and enemy Indians fired
many shots at him without harming him. Finally
some one of them got behind him and shot him
through the body. He fell, not dead, but unable to
stand up. Some of his friends rescued him. I caught
his horse. When we were ready to go back to our
camps we put him upon a travois and had his horse
drag this bed for him. He died that night, at his
home lodge. He was the only Cheyenne killed that
day. Limpy was shot in his left side and had his
horse killed. Other Cheyennes had slight wounds.

One Burned Thigh Sioux was killed during the
battle, and one Minneconjoux died after arrival at the
camps. I do not know how many other Sioux were
killed, but some Cheyennes said there were twenty

202

SOLDIERS FROM THE SOUTHWARD

or more. I think the Uncpapas lost the most war-
riors. I remember that one of the dead Sioux was a
boy about fourteen years old. Black Sun was buried
in a hillside cave. I believe that all of the Sioux dead
were left in burial tepees on the camp-site when we
left there.

All camps were moved again early the next morn-
ing after the Rosebud battle. We followed a short
distance down Medicine Dance creek and then turned
southward across the benches to the Little Bighorn.
In present times, where the Busby road joins the
graveled highway there is a bridge over the river.
About half a mile south of this bridge, on the west
side of the highway and on the east side of the river,
stood the camp circle of the Uncpapas. The Chey-
ennes were a mile or more farther up the river. The
other four tribal camps were scattered here and there
between the Uncpapas and the Cheyennes. There
was not here nor at any other camping location a
placing of the camp circles in line with one another.
The groupings between Uncpapas and Cheyennes
were according to the form of the land or the curves
of the stream. The only strict rule of camp circle lo-
cation was that none should be set up ahead of the
Cheyennes nor behind the Uncpapas.

Six sleeps w remained at this first camping place
on the Little Bighorn. We had beaten the white men

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

soldiers* Our scouts had followed them far enough
to learn that they were going farther and farther
away from us. We did not know of any other soldiers
hunting for us. If there were any, they now would
be afraid to come. There were feasts and dances in
all of the camps. On the benchlands just east of
us our horses found plenty of rich grass. Among the
hills west of the river were great herds of buffalo.
Every day, big hunting parties went among them.
Men and women were at work providing for their
families. That was why we killed these animals.
Indians never did destroy any animal life as a mere
pleasurable adventure.

Six Arapaho men came to the Cheyenne camp
while we were at this place. They said they were
afraid of soldiers, as they had killed a white man on
Powder river. Many Sioux and some Cheyennes sus-
pected them as spies, but finally all of us were satisfied
they wanted to stay with us as friends. They were
invited into lodges of different ones of the Cheyennes.
Some more of our own people from the reservation
joined us here. It is likely some Sioux also arrived,
but I am not sure about that.

Our plans had been to go up the Little Bighorn
valley. But our game scouts reported great herds of
antelope west of the Bighorn river. Because of this,
the chiefs decided we should turn and go down the

204

SOLDIERS FROM THE SOUTHWARD

Little Bighorn, to its mouth. From there our hunt-
ing parties would cross the Bighorn and get antelope
skins and meat that we now wanted.

These councils of chiefs of all of the tribal circles
were held sometimes at one camp circle and some-
times at another. In each case, heralds announced
the meeting and told where it would be held. Each
tribe operated its own internal government, the same
as if it were entirely separated from the others. The
chiefs of the different tribes met together as equals.
There was only one who was considered as being
above all of the others. This was Sitting Bull. He
was recognized as the one old man chief of all the
camps combined.

Almost all of our Northern Cheyenne tribe were
with us on the Little Bighorn. Only a few of our
forty big chiefs were absent. Two of our four old
men chiefs, Old Bear and Dirty Moccasins, were here.
Old Bear had been off the reservation throughout all
of the past year, while Dirty Moccasins had come to
us on the Rosebud. The absent two old men chiefs
were Little Wolf and Rabbit, this last one known
sometimes as Dull Knife, or Morning Star. Our
tribal medicine tepee was at its place in our camp
circle, and Charcoal Bear, its keeper, was with it. I
believe all of the thirty chiefs of the three warrior
societies were present, except Little Wolf, leading

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

chief of the Elk warriors. I do not know how many
Cheyennes in all were in the camp.* In fact, I do
not know how many of us there were in our tribe at
that time. I never knew of any count having been
made during those times.

We crossed the Little Bighorn river to its west
side and set off down the valley. Cheyennes ahead,
Uncpapas behind, in the usual order of march. The
journey that day was not a long one. After eight or
nine miles of travel the Cheyennes stopped and began
to form their camp circle. The tribes following us
chose their ground, and their women began to set up
the villages taken down that forenoon. The last
tribe, the biggest one, the Uncpapas, placed them-
selves behind the others.

The Cheyenne location was about two miles north
from the present railroad station at Garryowen, Mon-
tana. We were near the mouth of a small creek flow-
ing from the southwestward into the river. Across
the river east of us and a little upstream from us was
a broad coulee, or little valley, having now the name
Medicine Tail coulee.

The Uncpapas, at the southern end of the group

* At the Northern Cheyenne fair at Lame Deer in 1927 I estimated
the encampment at about 1,100. Wooden Leg and some other old men
were asked to compare this camp with the one on the Little Bighorn.
After a consultation, it was generally agreed that there must have
been 1,600 or more Cheyennes in their camp when the Custer soldiers
came. T.B.M.

206

SOLDIERS FROM THE SOUTHWARD

and most distant from us, put their circle just north-
east of the present Garryowen station. The other
four circles were placed here and there between us
and the Uncpapas.

Our trail during all of our movements throughout
that summer could have been followed by a blind
person. It was from a quarter to half a mile wide
at all places where the form of the land allowed that
width. Indians regularly made a broad trail when
traveling in bands using travois. People behind
often kept in the tracks of people in front, but when
the party of travelers was a large one there were many
of such tracks side by side*

207

VIII

On the Little Bighorn.

Every one of the six separate camp circles had its
open and unoccupied side toward the east. Every
lodge in each of these camps was set up so that the
entrance opening was at its east side. This was the
arrangement at all of our campings in this entire
summer of combined movement. This was the regu-
lar Indian way of putting up a lodge or arranging a
camp.

Some old Cheyennes talk of seven camp circles,
and a few of them mention eight. But there were
only six important ones. The extra one or two were
not of tribal bands governing themselves as such.
These additional Indians in considerable number
were the Burned Thighs, Assiniboines and Waist and
Skirt people. These kept themselves mainly in their
own separated groups, but the groups would be placed
close to some main camp circle and considered as
belonging to it. At this particular camping place
the Waist and Skirt Sioux were right beside the great
Uncpapa circle, the Burned Thighs were partly with
the Blackfeet Sioux and partly with the Ogallalas.
Beginning with the Cheyennes at the north side and

208

ON THE LITTLE BIGHORN

following up the river, four camp circles succeeded
each other: Cheyennes, Arrows All Gone, Minne-
conjoux, Uncpapas. Away from the river and south-
west of the Cheyennes and Arrows All Gone was the
Ogallala camp. Between the Ogallalas and the Unc-
papas, but nearer to the Uncpapas, was the Black-
feet Sioux camp, this also back a short distance from
the river. A small and irregular camp of Burned
Thigh Sioux was located by the river between the
Cheyennes and the Arrows All Gone, or just east of
the Ogallalas. All of the camps were east of the
present railroad and highway.

One big lodge of Southern Cheyennes was in our
circle. In it were eight men, six women and some
children. Lame White Man, the Southern Cheyenne
chief, had his own family lodge. He and his family
had been with our northern branch of the tribe so
long that they were looked upon as belonging to us.
The six Arapaho men were attached to the lodge of
Two Moons, one of the little chiefs of the Fox warrior
society. One of his two wives was an Arapaho
woman. There was not any white person nor any
mixed-breed person with us. I never heard of there
being any such person there with any of the Sioux
tribes.

Our tribal medicine tepee, containing our sacred
Buffalo Head and other revered objects, was in its

209

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

place at the western part of the open space enclosed
by our camp circle. The medicine arrows, which be-
long to the Southern Cheyennes, were not here. Ours
was the only tribal medicine lodge in the whole camp.
The Sioux tribes did not maintain this kind of institu-
tion. They had tribal medicine pipes, but no special
lodges for them.

Our family dwelling had in it seven people. These
were my father and mother, my older brother Yellow
Hair, my older sister Crooked Nose, myself Wooden
Leg* a younger sister and a small boy brother. All
of us together owned nine horses. I personally
owned two of these. Other tepees had more people
in them, some not as many. A few unmarried young
men had little willow dome and robe shelters. Old
couples likewise had this sort of temporary housing.
These would be abandoned and built anew at each
time of moving camp.

Three hundred lodges seems to me now as being
about the size of our Cheyenne camp. The Black-
feet Sioux had about the same number, or a few less.
The Arrows All Gone had more. The Minneconjoux
and the Ogallalas each had more than the Arrows
All Cone. The Uncpapas had, I believe, twice as
many as had the Cheyennes.*

Estimating the Cheyennes at 1,600, it appears the entire camp
numbered about 12,000. T. B. M.

210

ON THE LITTLE BIGHORN

The principal chiefs of the various camp circles
were:

Uncpapas: Sitting Bull. He also was recognized
as the one old man chief of the combined tribes. The
Uncpapa medicine man chief was named Buffalo Calf
Pipe.

Ogallalas: Crazy Horse, old man chief.

Minneconjoux: Lame Deer, old man chief.

Arrows All Gone: Hump Nose, or Hump, im-
portant chief of some kind.

Blackf eet : I do not know name of any chief there.
Also, I do not know what chiefs may have been with
the small irregular bands of other Indians.

Cheyennes: Old Bear and Dirty Moccasins, old
men chiefs. Next to them, Crazy Head was con-
sidered the most important tribal big chief. Lame
White Man was regarded as the most capable warrior
chief among us, although Last Bull and Old Man
Coyote also were held in special high esteem.

Our Cheyenne warrior society chiefs were these :*

Elk warriors: Leading chief Lame White Man.
Nine little chiefs Left-Handed Shooter, Pig, Goes
After Other Buffalo, Plenty Bears, Wolf Medicine,
Broken Jaw, A Crow Cut His Nose, White Hawk and
Tall White Man.

*List made up in various conferences wherein Wooden Leg was
assisted by Sun Bear, White Wolf, Big Crow, Two Feathers and Big
Beaver, all warriors at the battle. T. B. M.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Crazy Dog warriors: Leading chief Old Man
Coyote. Nine little chiefs Black Knife, Beaver
Claws, Iron Shirt, Little Creek, Snow Bird, Crazy
Mule, Strong Left Arm, Red Owl and Crow Necklace.

Fox warriors: Leading chief Last Bull. Nine
little chiefs Wrapped Braids, Plenty of Buffalo
Bull Meat, Little Horse, Sits Beside His Medicine,
Two Moons, Bears Walks on a Ridge, Mosquito,
Rattlesnake Nose and Weasel Bear.

The Fox warriors were on duty as camp policemen
at this time. It was their business, while remaining
on duty, to watch for the approach of enemies as well
as to enforce the tribal laws. A few of the little chiefs
of the warrior societies, and various members of the
different ones, were not in the camp.

Our three leading warrior chiefs were allowed to
talk in the tribal councils, where the tribal big
chiefs and old men adviser chiefs assembled for
the consideration of tribal affairs. The little war-
rior chiefs were expected to attend these councils,
but they were not permitted to talk there. They
were required to keep still and listen. The place
for them to talk was in the warrior society meetings,
where they were the instructors while the young war-
riors had to remain quiet and listening. The Sioux
and other tribes had this same kind of system.

212

ON THE LITTLE BIGHORN

Guns were not plentiful among us. Most of our
hunting had been with bows and arrows. Of the
Cheyennes, Two Moons and White Wolf each had a
repeating rifle. Some others had single-shot breech-
loading rifles. But there was not much ammunition
for the good guns. The muzzle-loaders usually were
preferred, because for these we could mold the bullets
and put in whatever powder was desired, or accord-
ing to the quantity on hand. I believe the Sioux
had, in proportion to their numbers, about the same
supply of firearm material that we had. The Waist
and Skirt people had few or no guns, were in every
way very poor. My muzzle-loading rifle had been
lost with my other personal effects when we had been
driven out and had our lodges burned on Powder
river.

Six or eight guns, I suppose, had been taken from
soldiers at the Rosebud fight. I recall seeing only
two, a rifle and a revolver, among the Cheyennes.
Both of them used cartridges. The ammunition belt
I saw taken there had a special piece of belting swung
in a curve from the main girdle. Around the main
circle were loops for forty rifle cartridges. The re-
volver cartridges were carried in twelve or fifteen
loops on the suspended curve. On the surface of a
revolver scabbard I saw were six other loops for its

213

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

cartridges. I never heard of the Indians getting from
the Rosebud soldiers any ammunition except what
was in the belts captured.

My cap-and-ball six shooter was my warring
weapon. I had plenty of caps, powder and lead for it.
I had a bullet mold to make its bullets from the lead.
I kept the bullets and the caps in two small tin boxes.
The powder I carried in a horn swung by a thong from
my shoulder. For the gun I had a good scabbard.
This was fastened to my leather belt.

The Cheyenne horses were put out to graze on the
valley below our camp. Horses belonging to other
tribes were placed at other feeding areas on the valley
and on the bench hills just west of the combined In-
dian camps. The tribal herds were kept separate
from each other. Boys from each tribe guarded their
horse bands. An occasional riding horse was
picketed near to or within each camp circle. It could
get better feed with the herd, and probably it felt
better satisfied there, but always there was somebody
here or there, particularly among the policemen, who
picketed a horse for ready use.

I had no thought then of any fighting to be done
in the near future. We had driven away the soldiers,
on the upper Rosebud, seven days ago. It seemed
likely it would be a long time before they would
trouble us again. My mind was occupied mostly by

214

ON THE LITTLE BIGHORN

such thoughts as regularly are uppermost in the minds
of young men. I was eighteen years old, and I liked
girls.

That night we had a dance. It was entirely a
social affair for young people, not a ceremonial or
war dance. In the midst of the open area within our
camp circle the women and girls cleared off and
leveled a broad surface of ground. The young men
brought a tall pole and set it up at the center of the
dancing ground. Charcoal Bear, the medicine chief,
brought the buffalo skin that regularly hung from
the top of the sacred tepee. He tied it to the top end
of our long pole before we raised it. We built a big
bonfire. The drums and the Cheyenne dance songs
enlivened the assemblage. It seemed that peace and
happiness was prevailing all over the world, that no-
where was any man planning to lift his hand against
his fellow man.

The same kind of amusement was going on in the
Sioux camps. An occasional group from them came
to our party. An occasional group of Cheyennes
went visiting among them. I was enjoying myself in
our own gathering. Finally, though, a young man
friend of mine proposed:

"Let's go and dance a while with the Sioux girls."

Four of us went to the neighboring camp, that of
the Arrows All Gone Sioux. Pretty soon the girls

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

were asking us to dance.* The Sioux women gave us
plenty of food. We were treated well, so we did not
go elsewhere nor back to our own people. We stayed
there and danced throughout the remainder of that
night.

At the first sign of dawn the dance ended. I
walked wearily across to the Cheyenne camp. I did
not go into our family lodge. Instead, I dropped
down upon the ground behind it. I do not remember
anything that might have happened during the two
or three hours that followed. When I awoke I went
into the family lodge. My mother prepared me a
breakfast. Then she said: "You must go for a bath
in the river."

My brother Yellow Hair and I went together.
Other Indians, of all ages and both sexes, were splash-
ing in the waters of the river. The sun was high, the
weather was hot. The cool water felt good to my
skin. When my brother and I had dabbled there a
few minutes we came out and sought the shelter of
some shade trees. We sat there a little while, talk-
ing of the good times each of us had enjoyed during
the previous night. We sprawled out to lie down and
talk. Before we knew it, both of us were sound
asleep.

*The customary Indian way is for the women to choose partners
at the social dances. T. B. M.

216

IX

The Coming of Custer.

In my sleep I dreamed that a great crowd of people
were making lots of noise. Something in the noise
startled me. I found myself wide awake, sitting up
and listening. My brother too awakened, and we
both jumped to our feet. A great commotion was go-
ing on among the camps. We heard shooting. We
hurried out from the trees so we might see as well
as hear. The shooting was somewhere at the upper
part of the camp circles. It looked as if all of the
Indians there were running away toward the hills to
the westward or down toward our end of the village.
Women were screaming and men were letting out
war cries. Through it all we could hear old men
calling:

"Soldiers are here! Young men, go out and fight
them."

We ran to our camp and to our home lodge. Every-
body there was excited. Women were hurriedly
making up little packs for flight. Some were going
off northward or across the river without any packs.
Children were hunting for their mothers. Mothers
were anxiously trying to find their children. I got

217

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

my lariat and my six shooter. I hastened on down to-
ward where had been our horse herd. I came across
three of our herder boys. One of them was catching
grasshoppers. The other two were cooking fish in
the blaze of a little fire. I told them what was going
on and asked them where were the horses. They
jumped on their picketed ponies and dashed for the
camp, without answering me. Just then I heard Bald
Eagle calling out to hurry with the horses. Two other
boys were driving them toward the camp circle. I
was utterly winded from the running. I never was
much for running. I could walk all day, but I could
not run fast nor far. I walked on back to the home
lodge.

My father had caught my favorite horse from the
herd brought in by the boys and Bald Eagle. I
quickly emptied out my war bag and set myself at
getting ready to go into battle. I jerked off my
ordinary clothing. I jerked on a pair of new
breeches that had been given to me by an Uncpapa
Sioux. I had a good cloth shirt, and I put it on.
My old moccasins were kicked off and a pair of
beaded moccasins substituted for them. My father
strapped a blanket upon my horse and arranged the
rawhide lariat into a bridle. He stood holding my
mount.

"Hurry," he urged me.

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THE COMING OF CUSTER

I was hurrying, but I was not yet ready. I got my
paints and my little mirror. The blue-black circle
soon appeared around my face. The red and yellow
colorings were applied on all of the skin inside the
circle. I combed my hair. It properly should have
been oiled and braided neatly, but my father again
was saying, "Hurry," so I just looped a buckskin
thong about it and tied it close up against the back
of my head, to float loose from there. My bullets,
caps and powder horn put me into full readiness. In
a moment afterward I was on my horse and was going
as fast as it could run toward where all of the rest
of the young men were going. My brother already
had gone. He got his horse before I got mine, and
his dressing was only a long buckskin shirt fringed
with Crow Indian hair. The hair had been taken
from a Crow at a past battle with them.

The air was so full of dust I could not see where
to go. But it was not needful that I see that far. I
kept my horse headed in the direction of movement
by the crowd of Indians on horseback. I was led out
around and far beyond the Uncpapa camp circle.
Many hundreds of Indians on horseback were dash-
ing to and fro in front of a body of soldiers. The
soldiers were on the level valley ground and were
shooting with rifles. Not many bullets were being
sent back at them, but thousands of arrows were

219

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

falling among them. I went on with a throng of
Sioux until we got beyond and behind the white men.
By this time, though, they had mounted their horses
and were hiding themselves in the timber. A band of
Indians were with the soldiers. It appeared they were
Crows or Shoshones. Most of these Indians had fled
back up the valley. Some were across east of the
river and were riding away over the hills beyond.

Our Indians crowded down toward the timber
where were the soldiers. More and more of our
people kept coming. Almost all of them were Sioux.
There were only a few Cheyennes. Arrows were
showered into the timber. Bullets whistled out to-
ward the Sioux and Cheyennes. But we stayed far
back while we extended our curved line farther and
farther around the big grove of trees. Some dead
soldiers had been left among the grass and sagebrush
where first they had fought us. It seemed to me the
remainder of them would not live many hours longer.
Sioux were creeping forward to set fire to the timber.

Suddenly the hidden soldiers came tearing out on
horseback, from the woods. I was around on that
side where they came out. I whirled my horse and
lashed it into a dash to escape from them. All others
of my companions did the same. But soon we dis-
covered they were not following us. They were run-
ning away from us. They were going as fast their

220

WOODEN LEG MAKING CUSTF.R BATTLE DRAWINGS FOR THE

AUTHOR

THE COMING OF CUSTER

tired horses could carry them across an open valley
space and toward the river. We stopped, looked a
moment, arid then we whipped our ponies into swift
pursuit. A great throng of Sioux also were coming
after them. My distant position put me among the
leaders in the chase. The soldier horses moved
slowly, as if they were very tired. Ours were lively.
We gained rapidly on them.

I fired four shots with my six shooter. I do not
know whether or not any of my bullets did harm.
I saw a Sioux put an arrow into the back of a soldier's
head. Another arrow went into his shoulder. He
tumbled from his horse to the ground. Others fell
dead either from arrows or from stabbings or jab-
bings or from blows by the stone war clubs of the
Sioux. Horses limped or staggered or sprawled out
dead or dying. Our war cries and war songs were
mingled with many jeering calls, such as:

"You are only boys. You ought not to be fighting.
We whipped you on the Rosebud. You should have
brought more Crows or Shoshones with you to do your
fighting."

Little Bird and I were after one certain soldier.
Little Bird was wearing a trailing warbonnet. He
was at the right and I was at the left of the fleeing
man. We were lashing him and his horse with our
pony whips. It seemed not brave to shoot him. Be-

221

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

sides, I did not want to waste my bullets. He pointed
back his revolver, though, and sent a bullet into
Little Bird's thigh. Immediately I whacked the white
man fighter on his head with the heavy elk-horn
handle of my pony whip. The blow dazed him. I
seized the rifle strapped on his back. I wrenched it
and dragged the looping strap over his head. As I
was getting possession of this weapon he fell to the
ground. I did not harm him further. I do not know
what became of him. The jam of oncoming Indians
swept me on. But I had now a good soldier rifle.
Yet, I had not any cartridges for it.

Three soldiers on horses got separated from the
others and started away up the valley, in the direction
from where they had come. Three Cheyennes, Sun
Bear, Eagle Tail Feather and Little Sun,* joined
some Sioux in pursuit of the three white men. The
Cheyennes told afterward about the outcome of this
pursuit. One of the soldiers turned his horse east-
ward toward the river and escaped in the timber.
The other two kept on southward. Of these two, one
went off to the right, up a small gulch to the top of
the bench. There he was caught and killed. The re-
maining one rode on toward the mouth of Reno
creek. As he neared that point he swerved to the

* Little Sun, in the presence of Wooden Leg and other veteran
Cheyennes, told me of this incident. T. B. M.

222

THE COMING OF CUSTER

right. He made a circle out upon the valley and re*
turned to the timber just across west from the mouth
of Reno creek. Here he dismounted from his ex-
hausted horse and got himself into the brush. The
Sioux and Cheyennes surrounded him and killed him.
They told that he fought bravely to the last, making
use of his six shooter.

A warbonnet Indian belonging with the soldiers
was chased by Crooked Nose, a Cheyenne, and some
Sioux. The chase was afoot, across a wet slough and
into some timber northward from where the soldiers
had been hidden for a few minutes. After many ex-
changes of shots, after much dodging and shifting of
position, the enemy Indian was killed there.* I
was told afterward about this killing. I did not see
it. I was following the fleeing soldiers to and across
the river.

Indians mobbed the soldiers floundering afoot and
on horseback in crossing the river. I do not know
how many of our enemies might have been killed
there. With my captured rifle as a club I knocked
two of them from their horses into the flood waters.
Most of the pursuing warriors stopped at the river,
but many kept on after the men with the blue cloth-
ing. I remained in the pursuit and crossed the river.

* lliis apparently was Bloody Knife, Ouster's favorite Arikara
scout. T. B. M.

223

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Whirlwind, a Cheyenne, charged after a warbonnet
Indian belonging with the whites. The enemy Indian
bravely charged also toward Whirlwind. The two
men fired rifles at the same moment.. Both of them
fell dead. This was on the flat land just east of the
river where the soldiers crossed.

Another enemy Indian was behind a little sage-
brush knoll and shooting at us. His shots were
returned. I and some others went around and got
behind him. We dismounted and crept toward him.
As we came close up to him he fell. A bullet had
hit him. He raised himself up, though, and swung
his rifle around toward us. We rushed upon him.
I crashed a blow of my rifle barrel upon his head.
Others beat and stabbed him to death. I got also
his gun. It was the same as the one I had taken
from the soldier, but the Indian's gun had a longer
barrel. A Sioux said: "You have two guns. Let
me have one of them." I gave him the one I had
taken from the Indian just killed. I liked better
the shorter barreled one, so I kept it. The Sioux
already had the Indian's ammunition belt. He did
not give me any of the cartridges. There were only
a few of them. One of the Sioux scalped the dead
man. Different ones took his clothing. I took noth-
ing except the gun I had given away.

I returned to the west side of the river. Lots of

224

THE COMING OF CUSTER

Indians were hunting around there for dead soldiers
or for wounded ones to kill. I joined in this search.
I got some tobacco from the pockets of one dead
man. I got also a belt having in it a few cartridges.
All of the weapons and clothing and all other pos-
sessions were being taken from the bodies. The
warriors were doing this. No old people nor women
were there. They all had run away to the hill
benches to the westward. I went to a dead horse,
to see what might be found there. Leather bags
were on them, behind the saddles. I rummaged into
one of these bags. I found there two pasteboard
boxes. I broke open one of them.

"Oh, cartridges!"

There were twenty of them in each box, forty in
all. Thirty of them were used to fill up the vacant
places in my belt. The remaining ten I wrapped into
a piece of cloth and dropped them down into my own
little kit bag. Now I need not be so careful in ex-
pending ammunition. Now I felt very brave. I
jumped upon my horse and went again to fight what-
ever soldiers I might find on the east side of the river.

The soldiers had gone up gulches and a backbone
ridge to the top of a steep and high hill. Indians
were all about them. Shots were going toward them
and coming from them. A friend here told me that
Hump Nose, a Cheyenne two years younger than I

225

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT (JUbTJfiK

was, had been killed on the west side of die river.
My heart was made sad by this news, but I went on
up the hill. I joined with others in going around
to the left or north side of the place where were
the soldiers. From our hilltop position I fired a few
shots from my newly-obtained rifle. I aimed not at
any particular ones, but only in the direction of all
of them. I think I was too far away to do much harm
to them. I had been there only a short time when
somebody said to me:

"Look! Yonder are other soldiers!"
I saw them on distant hills down the river and
on our same side of it. The news of them spread
quickly among us. Indians began to ride in that di-
rection. Some went along the hills, others went down
to cross the river and follow the valley. I took this
course. I guided my horse down the steep hillside
and forded the river. Back again among the camps
I rode on through them to our Cheyenne circle at
the lower end of them. As I rode I could see lots
of Indians out on the hills across on the east side
of the river and fighting the other soldiers there. I
do not know whether all of our warriors left the first
soldiers or some of them stayed up there. I sup-
pose, though, that all of them came away from there,
as they would be afraid to stay if only a few remained.
Not many people were in the lodges of our camp.

226

THE COMING OF CUSTER

Most of the women and children and old Cheyennes
were gone to the west side of the valley or to the
hills at that side. A few were hurrying back and
forth to take away packs. My father was the only
person at our lodge. I told him of the fight up the
valley. I told him of my having helped in the killing
of the enemy Indian and some soldiers in the river.
I gave to him the tobacco I had taken. I showed
him my gun and all of the cartridges.

"You have been brave," he cheered me. "You
have done enough for one day. Now you should

rest."

"No, I want to go and fight the other soldiers," I
said. "I can fight better now, with this gun."

"Your horse is too tired," he argued.

"Yes, but I want to ride the other one."

He turned loose my tired horse and roped my
, other one from the little herd being held inside the
camp circle. He blanketed the new mount and ar-
ranged the lariat bridle. He applied the medicine
treatment for protecting my mount. As he was doing
this I was making some improvements in my appear-
ance, making the medicine for myself. I added my
sheathknife to my stock of weapons. Then I looked
a few moments at the battling Indians and soldiers
across the river on the hills to the northeastward.
More and more Indians were flocking from the camps

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

to that direction. Some were yet coming along the
hills from where the first soldiers had stopped. The
soldiers now in view were spreading themselves into
lines along a ridge. The Indians were on lower ridges
in front of them, between them and the river, and
were moving on around up a long coulee to get be-
hind the white men.

"Remember, your older brother already is out
there in the fight," my father said to me. "I think
there will be plenty of warriors to beat the soldiers,
so it is not needful that I send both of my sons.
You have not your shield nor your eagle wing bone
flute. Stay back as far as you can and shoot from
a long distance. Let your brother go ahead of you."

Two other young men were near us. They had
their horses and were otherwise ready, but they told
me they had decided not to go. I showed them my
captured gun and the cartridges. I told them of
the tobacco and the clothing and other things we
had taken from the soldiers up the valley. This
changed their minds. They mounted their horses
and accompanied me.

We forded the river where all of the Indians were
crossing it, at the broad shallows immediately in
front of the little valley or wide coulee on the east
side. We fell in with others, many Sioux and a few
Cheyennes, going in our same direction. We urged

228

THE COMING OF CUSTER

our horses on up the small valley. As we approached
the place of battle each one chose his own personal
course. All of the Indians had come out on horse-
back. Almost all of them dismounted and crept
along the gullies afoot after the arrival near the sol-
diers. Still, there were hundreds of them riding here
and there all the time, most of them merely changing
position, but a few of them racing along back and
forth in front of the soldiers, in daring movements
to exhibit bravery.

I swerved up a gulch to my left, where I saw some
Cheyennes going ahead of me. Other Cheyennes
were coming here from the east side of the soldiers.
Although it was natural that tribal members should
keep together, there was everywhere a mingling of
the fighters from all of the tribes. The soldiers
had come along a high ridge about two miles east
from the Cheyenne camp. They had gone on past
us and then swerved off the high ridge to the lower
ridge where most of them afterward were killed.
While they were yet on the far-out ridge a few Sioux
and Cheyennes had exchanged shots with them at
long distance, without anybody being hurt. Bobtail
Horse, Roan Bear and Buffalo Calf, three Cheyennes,
and four Sioux warriors with them, were said to have
been the first of our Indians to cross the river and
go to meet the soldiers. Bobtail Horse was an Elk

229

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

warrior, Roan Bear a Fox warrior, and Buffalo Calf
a Crazy Dog warrior. They had heen joined soon
afterward by other Indians from the valley camps
and from the southward hills wbere the first soldiers
had taken refuge.

Most of the Indians were working around the ridge
now occupied by the soldiers. We were lying down
in gullies and behind sagebrush hillocks. The shoot-
ing at first was at a distance, but we kept creeping
in closer all around the ridge. Bows and arrows were
in use much more than guns. From the hiding-places
of the Indians, the arrows could be shot in a high
and long curve, to fall upon the soldiers or their
horses. An Indian using a gun had to jump up and
expose himself long enough to shoot. The arrows
falling upon the horses stuck in their backs and
caused them to go plunging here and there, knocking
down the soldiers. The ponies of our warriors who
were creeping along the gulches had been left in
gulches farther back. Some of them were let loose,
dragging their ropes, but most of them were tied to
sagebrush. Only the old men and the boys stayed
all the time on their ponies, and they stayed back on
the surrounding ridges, out of reach of the bullets.

The slow long-distance fighting was kept up for
about an hour and a half, I believe. The Indians
all the time could see where were the soldiers, be-

230

THE COMING OF CUSTER

cause the white men were mostly on a ridge and their
horses were with them. But the soldiers could not
see our warriors, as they had left their ponies and
were crawling in the gullies through the sagebrush.
A warrior would jump up, shoot, jerk himself down
quickly, and then crawl forward a little further. All
around the soldier ridge our men were doing this.
So not many of them got hit by the soldier bullets
during this time of fighting.

After the long time of the slow fighting, about
forty of the soldiers * came galloping from the east
part of the ridge down toward the river, toward where
most of the Cheyennes and many Ogallalas were hid-
den. The Indians ran back to a deep gulch. The
soldiers stopped and got off their horses when they
arrived at a low ridge where the Indians had been.
Lame White Man, the Southern Cheyenne chief, came
on his horse and called us to come back and fight.
In a few minutes the warriors were all around these
soldiers. Then Lame White Man called out:

"Come. We can kill all of them."

All around, the Indians began jumping up, run-
ning forward, dodging down, jumping up again, down
again, all the time going toward the soldiers. Right
away, all of the white men went crazy. Instead of

The Indians differ as to the color of the horses ridden bj these
soldiers, but military students of the case believe this to have been
Lieutenant Smith's troop. T. B. M.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

footing us, they turned their guns upon themselves.
Almost before we could get to them, every one of
them was dead. They killed themselves.

The Indians took the guns of these soldiers and
used them for shooting at the soldiers on the high
ridge. I went back and got my horse and rode around
beyond the east end of the ridge. By the time I got
there, all of the soldiers there were dead. The In-
dians told me that they had killed only a few of those
men*, that the men had shot each other and shot
themselves. A Cheyenne told me that four soldiers
from that part of the ridge had turned their horses
and tried to escape by going back over the trail
where they had come. Three of these men were
killed quickly. The fourth one got across a gulch
and over a ridge eastward before the pursuing group
of Sioux got close to him. His horse was very tired,
and the Sioux were gaining on him. He was moving
his right arm as though whipping his horse to make
it go faster. Suddenly his right hand went up to his
head. With his revolver he shot himself and fell
dead from his horse.

I raced my horse to hurry around to the hillside
north of the soldier ridge. The Indians there were
all around a band of soldiers on the north slope.*
I got off my horse and fired two shots, at long dis-

* Captain Kcogh or Captain Tom Coster, or both troops. T, B. M.

232

THE COMING OP CUSTER

tance, with my soldier gun. I did not shoot any
more, because the sagebrush was full of Indians
jumping up and down and crawling close to the sol-
diers, and I was afraid I might hit one of our own
men. About that time, all of this band of soldiers
went crazy and fired their guns at each other's heads
and breasts or at their own heads and breasts. All
of them were dead before the Indians got to them.
Many hundreds of boys on horseback were watch-
ing the battle. They were on the hills all around,
far enough away to be out of reach of the soldier
bullets. The ridge north of the soldier ridge was
crowded with these boys and some old men. When
the warriors were crowding in close to the soldiers
on the north slope, one soldier there broke away and
ran afoot across a gulch toward the northward hill.
I suppose he thought there were no warriors in that
direction, as all of them were hidden and creeping
through the sagebrush and gullies. But several of
them jumped up and ran after him. Just after he
got across the gulch he stopped, stood still, and killed
himself with his own revolver. A Cheyenne boy
named Big Beaver lashed his pony into a dash down
to the dead white man. The boy got the soldier's
revolver and his belt of cartridges, jumped back upon
his pony, and hurried away again to the hilltop. A
Cheyenne warrior scalped the soldier and hung the

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

scalp on a bunch of sagebrush, leaving it there.
While I was at this part of the field, a Waist and
Skirt Indian said to me:

"I think I see the big chief of the soldiers. I have
been watching one certain man who appears to be
telling all of the others what to do."

He tried to point out this man. But just then
another bunch of soldier horses went running wildly
among them, kicking up a great dust and knocking
down or jostling the men. So I did not get to see
the special man the Indian was trying to show me.

I saw one Sioux walking slowly toward the gulch,
going away from where were the soldiers. He wab-
bled dizzily as he moved along. He fell down, got
up, fell down again, got up again. As he passed
near to where I was I saw that his whole lower jaw
was shot away. The sight of him made me sick. I
had to vomit. I did not know him, and I did not
learn whether he died or not.

I had remained on my horse during most of the
long time of the fighting at a distance. I rode from
place to place around the soldiers, keeping myself
back, as my father had urged me to do, while my
older brother crept close with the other warriors.
I got off and crept with them, though, for a little
while at the place where the band of soldiers rode
down toward the river. After they were dead I got

234

THE COMING OF CUSTER

my horse and mounted again. I stayed mounted
until I got around into the gulch north from the west
end of the soldier ridge. By this time all of the
soldiers were gone except a band of them at the
west end of the ridge. They were hidden behind
dead horses. Hundreds or thousands of warriors
were all around them, creeping closer all the time.
From the gulch where I was I could see the north
slope of the ridge covered by the hidden Indians.
But the soldiers, from where they were, could not
see the warriors, except as some Indian might jump
up to shoot quickly and then duck down again. We
could get only glimpses of the soldiers, but we knew
all the time right where they were, because we could
see their dead horses.

I got down afoot in the gulch. I let out my long
lariat rope for leading my horse while I joined the
warriors creeping up the slope toward the soldiers.
During all of the earlier fighting, when I had been
most of the time going from place to place on horse-
back, I had fired several shots with my rifle captured
from the soldier when we chased them across the
river. I also had used my six-shooter. I had re-
placed the four bullets expended during the chase of
the first soldiers in the valley. In this second battle
I used up the six, reloaded the six-shooter, and fired
all of these additional six shots at the soldiers. But

235

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

it is hard to shoot straight when on horseback, es-
pecially when there is much noise and much shooting
and excitement, as the horse will not stand still.
When I went crawling up the slope I could lie down
and shoot. I could not see any particular soldier to
shoot at, but I could see their dead horses, where the
men were hiding. So I just sent my bullets in that
direction.

A Sioux wearing a warbonnet was lying down be-
hind a clump of sagebrush on the hillside only a
short distance north of where now is the big stone
having the iron fence around it. He was about half
the length of my lariat rope up ahead of me. Many
other Indians were near him. Some boys were min-
gled among them, to get in quickly for making coup
blows on any dead soldiers they might find. A Chey-
enne boy was lying down right behind the warbonnet
Sioux. The Sioux was peeping up and firing a rifle
from time to time. At one of these times a soldier
bullet hit him exactly in the middle of the forehead.
His arms and legs jumped in spasms for a few mo-
ments, then he died. The boy quickly slid back down
into a gully, jumped to his feet and ran away.

A soldier on a horse suddenly appeared in view
back behind the warriors who were coming from the
eastward along the ridge. He was riding away to
the eastward, as fast as he could make his horse go.

236

THE COMING OF CUSTER

It seemed he must have been hidden somewhere
back there until the Indians had passed him. A band
of the Indians, all of them Sioux, I believe, got after
him. I lost sight of them when they went beyond
a curve of the hilltop. I suppose, though, they caught
him and killed him.

The shots quit coming from the soldiers. War-
riors who had crept close to them began to call out
that all of the white men were dead. All of the In-
dians then jumped up and rushed forward. All of the
boys and old men on their horses came tearing into
the crowd. The air was full of dust and smoke.
Everybody was greatly excited. It looked like thou-
sands of dogs might look if all of them were mixed
together in a fight. All of the Indians were saying
these soldiers also went crazy and killed themselves.
I do not know. I could not see them. But I believe
they did so.

Seven of these last soldiers broke away and went
running down the coulee sloping toward the river
from the west end of the ridge. I was on the side
opposite from them, and there was much smoke and
dust, and many Indians were in front of me, so I did
not see these men running, but I learned of them
from the talk afterward. They did not get far, be-
cause many Indians were all around them. It was
said that these seven men, or some of them, killed

237

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

themselves. I do not know, as I did not see them.*
After the great throng of Indians had crowded upon
the little space where had been the last band of fight-
ing soldiers, a strange incident happened: It ap-
peared that all of the white men were dead. But
there was one of them who raised himself to a sup-
port on his left elbow. He turned and looked over
his left shoulder, and then I got a good view of him.
His expression was wild, as if his mind was all tangled
up and he was wondering what was going on here.
In his right hand he held his six-shooter. Many of
the Indians near him were scared by what seemed to
have been a return from death to life. But a Sioux
warrior jumped forward, grabbed the six-shooter and
wrenched it from the soldier's grasp. The gun was
turned upon the white man, and he was shot through
the head. Other Indians struck him or stabbed him.
I think he must have been the last man killed in this
great battle where not one of the enemy got away.

* The story of wholesale suiciding is such a reversal of our accepted
conceptions that some reader may exclaim: 'That is a villifying false-
hood!" But it \$ the truth. Most of the Seventh cavalry enlisted, men
on that occasion were recent recruits. Only a few of them ever had
been in an Indian battle, or in any kind of battle. It Is evident,
though, that they fought well through an hour and a half or two hours.
Then, finding themselves vastly outnumbered, they <( went crazy," as the
Indians tell. They put into panicky practice the old frontiersman rule,
"When fighting Indians keep the last bullet for yourself." A great
mass of circumstantial evidence supports this explanation of the mili-
tary disaster. The author hopes to attain publication, at some future
time, of his own foil analysis of the entire case. T. B. M.

238

THE COMING OF CUSTER

This last man had a big and strong body. His
cheeks were plump. All over his face was a stubby
black beard. His mustache was much longer than
his other beard, and it was curled up at the ends.
The spot where he was killed is just above the middle
of the big group of white stone slabs now standing
on the slope southwest. from the big stone. I do
not know whether he was a soldier chief or an ordi-
nary soldier. I did not notice any metal piece nor
any special marks on the shoulders of his clothing,
but it may be they were there. Some of the Chey-
ennes say now that he wore two white metal bars.
But at that time we knew nothing about such things.

One of the dead soldier bodies attracted special
attention. This was one who was said to have been
wearing a buckskin suit. I had not seen any such
soldier during the fighting. When I saw the body it
had been stripped and the head was cut off and gone.
Across the breast was some writing made by blue and
red coloring into the skin. On each arm was a pic-
ture drawn with the same kind of blue and red paint.
One of the pictures was of an eagle having its wings
spread out. Indians told me that on the left arm
had been strapped a leather packet having in it some
white paper and a lot of the same kind of green pic-
ture-paper found on all of the soldier bodies. Some
of the Indians guessed that he must have been the

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

big chief of the soldiers, because of the bucbkift
clothing and because of the paint markings on his
breast and arms.* But none of the Indians knew
then who had been the big chief. They were only
guessing at it

The sun was just past the middle of the sky.**
The first soldiers, up the valley, had come about the
middle of the forenoon. The earlier part of the fight-
ing against these second soldiers had been slow, all
of the Indians staying back and approaching grad-
ually. At each time of charging, though, the mixup
lasted only a few minutes.

I took one scalp. As I went walking and leading
my horse among the dead I observed one face that
interested me. The dead man had a long beard
growing from both sides of his face and extending
several inches below the chin. He had also a full
mustache. All of the beard hair was of a light yellow
color, as I new recall it. Most of the soldiers had
beard growing, in different lengths, but this was the
longest one I saw among them. I think the dead man
may have been thirty or more years old. "Here is a
new kind of scalp," I said to a companion. I skinned
one side of the face and half of the chin, so as to
keep the long beard yet on the part removed.*** I

Evidently this was Captain Tom Custer.T. B. M.
** All old Cheyennes insist the battle ended about noon. T. B. M.
* Hiis unfortunate soldier probably was Lieutenant Cook. T. B. M.

240

THE COMING OF CUSTER

got an arrow shaft and tied the strange scalp to the
end of it. This I carried in a hand as I went looking
further.

Somebody told me Noisy Walking was badly
wounded. I went to where he was said to be, down
in the gulch where the band of soldiers nearest the
river had been killed in the earlier part of the battle.
He was my same age, and we often had been com-
panions since our small boyhood. White Bull, an im-
portant medicine man, was his father. I asked the
young man: "How are you?" He replied: "Good/*
But he did not look well. He had been hit by three
different bullets, one of them having passed through
his body. He had also some stab wounds in his side.
Word had been sent to his relatives in the camp west
of the river, and it was said his women relatives were
coming after him with a travois. I moved on east-
ward up the gulch coulee.

I discovered almost hidden the dead body of an
Indian. I did not go up close to it, but I could see
the scalp was gone. That puzzled me. Could this
be a Crow or a Shoshone? I had not known of there
being any Indians belonging to these soldiers killed
here. As I stood there looking, it seemed there was
something familiar about the appearance of that
body. I backed away and went to find my brother
Yellow Hair. We two returned to the place. We

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

got off our horses and walked to the dead Indian. We
rolled the body over and looked closely.

"Yes, it is Lame White Man," my brother agreed.

We called other Cheyennes. Several of them came.
All of them promptly confirmed our identification.
All of us were satisfied some Sioux had scalped him,
or maybe had killed him, finding him in among the
soldiers and supposing him to be a Crow or a Sho-
shone belonging to them. We knew he had gone
with the young men in their charge upon the sol-
diers there. Perhaps he had gone farther than the
others and was killed on his way back to us, the
killer mistaking him for an attacking enemy Indian.
A bullet had gone in at his right breast and out at
his back. He also had many stab wounds. He was
still dressed in his best clothing, none of it having
been taken. The Cheyennes never made any in-
quiries among the Sioux concerning the case. We
just kept quiet about it.

My brother took the blanket from his horse and
covered the body of the favorite Cheyenne warrior
chief. A young man hurried away to go across the
river and tell his people. When I came back to the
place an hour or so afterward the dead man's wife
and three or four women helpers had come with a
horse dragging a travois. Four of us young men
rolled the body into the blanket and put it upon

242

THE COMING OF CUSTER

the buffalo hide stretched across the lodgepoles. The
women set off with it toward the river.

I helped likewise in putting my friend Noisy Walk-
ing upon the swinging bed when his father and
mother and other women came after him. Judging
by his appearance then, this was the last good act
I ever should do for him. Various groups of women,
many more of the Sioux than of the Cheyennes, were
m the field searching for and taking away their dead
and wounded men. Two Sioux had been killed in
this same first charge upon the soldiers. I did not
like to hear the weeping of the women. My heart
that had been glad because of the victory was made
sad by thoughts of our own dead and dying men and
their mourning relatives left behind.

I noticed decorations on the shoulders and stripes
on the arms of some of the soldier coats. I did not
think of their meanings. I did not hear any of the
Indians there talk about any meanings for these spe-
cial marks. If I thought about it at all, I may have
thought these were particular medicine ways the sol-
diers had for preparing themselves. It was a long
time after that day before I learned that the wearers
of these were the soldier chiefs.

Each Indian horse used for going into the battle
had only a blanket strapped upon its back and a
lariat rope about the neck. In riding, the lariat was

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

looped into the horse's mouth, or was looped over
the head and then into the mouth, for a bridle. The
surplus of the long rope was coiled and tucked into
the rider's belt. If a man fell from his horse the coil
would be jerked from his belt, so he would not be
dragged. Also, the uncoiling as the horse might
move away would leave a long rope trailing after it,
so it was easy to recapture the animal. That was
the regular Indian way of riding.

Warbonnets were worn by twelve Cheyennes
among the three hundred or more of our warriors
in the battle. It may be I have forgotten a few of
them, but as I recollect it our warbonnet men on
that day were these: * Crazy Head, Crow Necklace,
Little Horse, Wolf Medicine, White Elk, Howling
Wolf, Braided Locks, Chief Coming Up, Mad Wolf,
Little Shield, Sun Bear and White Body. Three of
these were little warrior chiefs. Ten of the war-
bonnets had trails. Sun Bear had a single buffalo
horn projecting out from the front of his forehead
band. Crazy Head was a big chief of the tribe, had
been a great fighter in past times, but was not now
a warrior chief. While he had on his warbonnet here,
I suppose he stayed in the background and let the
young men do the fighting. Chief Lame White Man

* Various old Cheyennes helped Wooden Leg in making this list
T. B. M.

244

THE COMING OF CUSTER

was not wearing a warbonnet on this occasion. It
was not usual for a man of his high standing to go
into the battle as he did. I suppose he did so because
he had not there any son to serve as a warrior.

Not any Cheyenne fought naked in this battle. All
of them who were in the fight were dressed in their
best, according to the custom of both the Cheyennes
and the Sioux. Of our warriors, Sun Bear was near-
est to nakedness. He had on a special buffalo-horn
head-dress. I saw several naked Sioux, perhaps a
dozen or more. Of course, these had special medi-
cine painting on the body. Two different Sioux I
saw wearing buffalo head skins and horns, and one
of them had a bear's skin over his head and body.
These three were not dressed in the usual war cloth-
ing. It is likely there were others I did not see. Per-
haps some of the naked ones were No Clothing
Indians.

A dead Uncpapa Sioux received something of the
same kind of mistaken attention given to our Lame
White Man. The dead Sioux was mixed in with
dead bodies of the soldiers. An Arapaho and a No
Clothing Indian supposed him to be a Crow or a
Shoshone belonging to the white men fighters* They
jabbed spears many times into the body. They were
much embarrassed when they learned of their
mistake.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

I found a metal bottle, as I was walking among
the dead men. It was about half full of some kind
of liquid. I opened it and found that the liquid was
not water. Soon afterward I got hold of another
bottle of the same kind that had in it the same kind
of liquid. I showed these to some other Indians.
Different ones of them smelled and sniffed. Finally
a Sioux said:

"Whisky."

Bottles of this kind were found by several other
Indians. Some of them drank the contents. Others
tried to drink, but had to spit out their mouthfuls.
Bobtail Horse got sick and vomited soon after he
had taken a big swallow of it. It became the talk
that this whisky explained why the soldiers became
crazy and shot each other and themselves instead of
shooting us. One old Indian said, though, that there
was not enough whisky gone from any of the bottles
to make a white man soldier go crazy. We all agreed
then that the foolish actions of the soldiers must
have been caused by the prayers of our medicine men.
I believed this was the true explanation. My belief
became changed, though, in later years. I think now
it was the whisky.*

I took a folded leather package from a soldier hav-

*Thc whisky explanation is regularly advanced by the warrior
veterans nowadays. It appears none of them have any conception of
suicide to avoid capture. T. B. If.

246

THE COMING OF CUSTER

ing three stripes on the left arm of his coat. It had
in it lots of flat pieces of paper having pictures or
writing I did not then understand. The paper was
of green color. I tore it all up and gave the leather
holder to a Cheyenne friend. Others got packages of
the same kind from other dead white men. Some
of it was kept by the finders. But most of it was
thrown away or was given to boys, for them to look
at the pictures.*

I rode away from the battle hill in the middle of
the afternoon. Many warriors had gone back across
the hills to the southward, there to fight again the
first soldiers. But I went to the camps across on
the west side of the river. I had on a soldier coat
and breeches I had taken. I took with me the two
metal bottles of whisky. At the end of the arrow
shaft I carried the beard scalp.

I waved my scalp as I rode among our people.
The first person I met who took special interest in
me was my mother's mother. She was living in a
little willow dome lodge of her own. "What is that?"
she asked me when I flourished the scalp stick toward
her. I told her. "I give it to you," I said, and I
held it out to her. She screamed and shrank away.
"Take it," I urged. "It will be good medicine for

* Paper money. The soldiers received two months' pay after they
had left Fort Lincoln. There had been no opportunity for them to
spend a cent, except among themselves, since that time. T. B. M.

247

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

you. 5 * Then I went on to tell her about my having
killed the Crow or Shoshone at the first fight up the
river, about my getting the two guns, about my
knocking in the head two soldiers in the river, about
what I had done in the next fight on the hill where
all of the soldiers had been killed. We talked about
my soldier clothing. She said I looked good dressed
that way. I had thought so too, but neither the coat
nor the breeches fit me well. The arms and legs
were too short for me. Finally she decided she would
take the scalp. She went then into her own little
lodge.

I passed one bottle of the whisky among friends.
Each took a small drink of it until all of it was gone.
The other bottle I gave to Little Hawk. He himself
drank all of the whisky in it. Pretty soon, though,
he became sick and he vomited up everything in his
stomach.

Some special excitement was going on over be-
yond the Arrows All Gone camp. A big crowd of
Sioux were gathered there. I went to see what they
were doing. They had surrounded some Indians just
then arrived in the camp. "Kill them, every one of
them,' 9 some Sioux were shouting. Others were say-
ing: "Wait. Let us be sure." Above the confusion
of threats and general noise of the excited throng I
heard an angry thundering:

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THE COMING OF CUSTER

"No. I had nothing to do with the soldiers. I
am all Indian, all Cheyenne."

It was the voice of Little Wolf, most respected of
the four old men chiefs of the Cheyennes. He was
speaking in our language. He could not talk Sioux.
He never had mingled much with them, so not many
of them knew him.

Yellow Horse, an old Southern Cheyenne man,
was with me. He said to me: "Let us go to Little
Wolf. You are his relative, you know the Sioux lan-
guage, and you should talk for him." We crowded
our way through to the old chief. Both of us shook
hands with him. The Sioux began talking to us
about him. Some Cheyennes also were accusing him.
One of these was White Bull. He knew Little Wolf,
but he said the chief ought to have been with the
Cheyennes long ago, that he ought not to have waited
until after the fighting before joining us, that he
stayed too long on the reservation. I knew that
White Bull's heart was troubled, though, about his
own son, Noisy Walking. Finally, Yellow Horse
called out: "Wait until this young man talks to
Little Wolf. He will find out and tell everybody."

"Have you been with the soldiers?" I asked the
chief.

"No, you foolish boy," he flared back at me. "Do
these people think I am a crazy man? I have with

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

me seven lodges* of our people. There are families
of women and children. They have their tepees,
their packhorses, all of their property. Does any-
body suppose that is the way to join the soldiers and
help them? Not any part of me ever was white man.
I am all Indian. I am willing to fight any man who
says I am not."

He went on to tell all about the experiences of his
little band of Cheyennes. On their way out from the
reservation they saw soldiers camped on the upper
Rosebud, just the afternoon before. They kept hid-
den back in the hills and watched the soldiers go on
toward the divide leading to the Little Bighorn. His
people did not set up their lodges that night. In-
stead, they traveled a while and rested a while, their
scouts all the time watching the soldiers. Early in
the morning, some of Little Wolf's young men out
in front found a box of something the soldiers had
lost. Just then, some soldiers came back, shot at
these young men, and they returned to Little Wolf.*
The band continued to follow the soldiers, but kept
themselves hidden. From the hilltops they heard the
guns and saw some of the fighting. It appeared that

* Here appears to have been the key incident that misled Ouster into
supposing his presence revealed to the camps and that caused him to
attack at once, lest they escape. Big Crow, Black Horse and Medicine
Bull, all of them with the Little Wolf band, told me the details of
this experience. T. B. M.

250

THE COMING OF CUSTER

all of the Indians in the camps were running away.
Finally, the shooting mostly died down. The
frightened little band peeped over the hilltops and
saw that the camps and the Indians still were on the
valley. Then they cautiously came on to join us.

I repeated all of this story to a Sioux chief. He
told the assembled Sioux warriors and I told the
Cheyennes. Some grumbling continued, many say-
ing that Little Wolf ought to have been with us long
ago, but all of them became satisfied that neither he
nor his companions deserved killing. The crowd
scattered, and the newcomers moved on to join the
Cheyenne camp. There were some additional scold-
ings of them on account of their having stayed so
long at the reservation. But their women had plenty
of sugar and coffee in their packs, and with gifts
of these desirable extra foods they soon quieted all
complaints. Little Wolf at that time was fifty-five
years old.

Burial parties of Cheyennes were going to the hill
gulches west of our camps, to put our dead into rock
crevices. Each warrior lost was disposed of by his
women relatives and his young men friends. A big
band of people went out to help bury Lame White
Man. I accompanied the relatives of Limber Bones,
one of our young men who had been killed. We
took him far back up a long coulee. We found there

251

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

a small hillside cliff. Four of us young men helped
the women to clear out a sheltered cove. In there
we placed the dead body, wrapped in blankets and
a buffalo robe. We piled a wall of flat stones across
the front of the grave. His mother and another
woman sat down on the ground beside it to mourn
for him. The rest of us returned to the valley.

The Sioux likewise were disposing of their dead.
Their customary way was to set up burial tepees.
It appeared that in all of the Sioux camps these were
being set up. They were placed where had been the
dwelling lodges, or near them. In some cases the
original dwelling lodges of the dead ones were left
standing, in each case the body being all dressed for
burial and left on a scaffold in the lodge or on the
dirt floor, the dwelling being then abandoned by the
inhabitants. This was a common mode of Sioux
burial, and sometimes the Cheyennes did it in this
way.

All of the camps were being moved. This was
in accordance with a regular custom among the In-
dian tribes. When any death occurred in a camp,
either from battle or from other cause, right at once
the people began to get ready to move camp to some
other place. The Cheyennes selected a camping spot
down the river about a mile northwestward. The
Sioux all began moving northwestward and back

252

THE COMING QF CUSTER

from the Little Bighorn toward the base of the bench
hills west from the river. In the new locations, all
of the camps except the Cheyennes were west of the
present railroad and highway.

Most of the women and children and older people
in the camps had fled toward the hills to the north-
ward and westward when the first band of soldiers
made the attack upon the Uncpapas at the upper
part of the group of camps. I suppose there were
very few people left in the camps at that end until
after those soldiers had been chased away and across
the river. When I rode up there and around the
west and south sides of the Uncpapa and Blackfeet
circles it was hard to keep from running over the
Indians who were hurrying afoot toward the bench
lands to the westward.

Our Cheyenne people who were not active war-
riors started to go toward the north, down the valley,
and some of them crossed the river. But when the
second band of soldiers were seen on the high ridge
far out eastward these Cheyennes who had crossed
the river returned to the camping side. Of course,
nobody knew how many soldiers were coming. No-
body knew what would be the outcome of their at-
tack. They had surprised us by their sudden appear-
ance. We were not prepared for battle.

At the first time of the flight from the camps, many

253

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

women and some of the men seized small packs of
food or other precious possessions and carried them
away. The fleeing ones stopped on the benchlands
west of where had been their camp circles. They
stayed there and watched the fighting. After a little
while, since no more of the soldiers had come to that
side of the river, people began hurrying to the camps,
quickly gathering up other things, then hurrying
back to the hilltops. Later, as none of our warriors
were returning, it became evident that we were win-
ning the contest. Our people then became more con-
fident. The old men who were making medicine
prayers for our success added words of encourage-
ment to the waiting families.

Throngs of women now were busy going back and
forth between the old and the new camp positions.
They were carrying water from the river and wood
from the timber. All of the lodges not abandoned
were taken down. Most of them were packed, not
set up in the new spots of location. The poles were
wrapped, the buffalo skin coverings were put into
bundles, packs were made up, all put into readiness
for quick movement elsewhere if need be. Only the
cooking pots and other essential articles were left
in use. The women went by hundreds to cut willows
for making little skeleton dome shelters, in substi-

254

THE COMING OF CUSTER

tution for the regular tepee lodges kept packed. It
had not rained here during all of that day, but rain
might come at any time. Not all of the Indians,
though, prepared shelters. Many depended only
upon robes for shielding them if shielding should
become needful. The lodges of mourning Cheyennes
were torn or cut to pieces or burned, and their fur-
nishings were cast away. These bereft people, ac-
cording to our customs, now had to live during their
time of mourning without any lodge or any property
of their own. They dwelt outside or with hospitable
friends. The poles and skins of any travois used to
carry dead bodies were also thrown away. Some-
times the horses used to drag the travois of a dead
person were killed or were turned loose to be captured
by whoever might want them.

After sundown I visited Noisy Walking. He was
lying on a ground bed of buffalo robes under a wil-
low dome shelter. His father White Bull was with
him. His mother sat just outside the entrance. I
asked my friend: "How are you?" He replied:
"Good, only I want water. 5 ' I did not know what
else to say, but I wanted him to know that I was
his friend and willing to do whatever I could for him.
I sat down upon the ground beside him. After a
little while I said: "You were very brave." Noth-

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

ing else was said for several minutes. He was weak.
His hands trembled at every move he made. Finally
he said to his father:

"I wish I could have some water just a little
of it."

"No. Water will kill you."

White Bull almost choked as he said this to his
son. But he was a good medicine man, and he knew
what was best. As I sat there looking at Noisy
Walking I knew he was going to die. My heart was
heavy. But I could not do him any good, so I ex-
cused myself and went away.

There was no dancing nor celebrating of any kind
in any of the camps that night. Too many people
were in mourning, among all of the Sioux as well as
among the Cheyennes. Too many Cheyenne and
Sioux women had gashed their arms and legs, in
token of their grief. The people generally were
praying, not cheering. There was much noise and
confusion, but this was from other causes. Young
men were going out to fight the first soldiers now
hiding themselves on the hill across the river from
where had been the first fighting during the morning.
Other young men were coming back to camp after
having been over there shooting at these soldiers.
Movements of this kind had been going on all the
time since the final blows fell upon all of the soldiers

256

THE COMING OF CUSTER

in the second and greatest battle. Old men heralds
were riding about all of the camps, singing the brave-
heart songs and calling out : "Young men, be brave."
The only fires anywhere among us were little camp
fires for cooking. Or, there may have been at times
a larger blaze coming from some mourning family's
lodge being burned.

I did not go back that afternoon nor that night to
help in fighting the first soldiers. Late in the night,
though, I went as a scout. Five young men of the
Cheyennes were appointed to guard our camp while
other people slept. These were Big Nose, Yellow
Horse, Little Shield, Horse Road and Wooden Leg.
One or other of us was out somewhere looking over
the country all the time. Two of us went once over
to the place where the soldiers were hidden. We
got upon hill points higher than they were. We could
look down among them. We could have shot among
them, but we did not do this. We just saw that
they yet were there.

Five other young men took our duties in the last
part of the night. I was glad to be relieved. I did
not go to my family group for rest. I let loose my
horse and dropped myself down upon a thick pad of
grassy sod.

257

The Spoils of Battle.

I slept late that next morning after the great
battle. The sun had been up an hour before I awoke.
I went to the willow lodge of my father and mother.
When I had eaten the breakfast given to me by my
mother I got myself ready again to risk death in an
effort to kill other white men who had come to kill
us. I combed and braided my hair. My braids in
those days were full and long, reaching down my
breast beyond the waist belt. I painted anew the
black circle around my face and the red and yellow
space enclosed within the circle. I was in doubt
about which clothing to wear, but my father said the
soldier clothing looked the best, even though the
coat sleeves ended far above my wrists and the legs
of the breeches left long bare spots between them
and the tops of my moccasins. I put on my big white
hat captured at the Rosebud fight. My sister Crooked
Nose got my horse for me. Soon afterward I was
on my way up and across the valley and on through
the river to the hill where the first soldiers were
staying.

I had both my rifle and my six shooter. I still

258

THE SPOILS OF BATTLE

was without my medicine shield and my other medi-
cine protectors that had been lost on Powder river.
Most of the other Cheyennes and Sioux had theirs.
The shields all were of specially shrunken and tough-
ened buffalo skin covered with buckskin fringed and
painted, each with his own choice of designs, for
the medicine influence. I went with other young men
to the higher hills around the soldiers. I stayed at
a distance from them and shot bullets from my new
rifle. I did not shoot many times, as it appeared I
was too far away, and I did not want to waste any
of my cartridges. So I went down and hid in a gulch
near the river.

Some soldiers came to get water from the river,
just as our old men had said they likely would do.
The white men crept down a deep gulch and then
ran across an open space to the water. Each one had
a bucket, and each would dip his bucket for water
and run back into the gulch. I put myself, with
others, where we could watch for these men. I
shot at one of them just as he straightened up after
having dipped his bucket into the water. He pitched
forward into the edge of the river. He went wal-
lowing along the stream, trying to swim, but having
a hard time at it. I jumped out from my hiding
place and ran toward him. Two Sioux warriors got
ahead of me. One of them waded after the man

259

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

and struck him with a rifle barrel. Finally he grabbed
the man, hit him again, and then dragged him dead
to the shore, quite a distance down the river. I kept
aftlr them, following down the east bank. Some
other Sioux warriors came. I was the only Cheyenne
there. The Sioux agreed that my bullet had been
the first blow upon the white soldier, so they allowed
me to choose whatever I might want of his
belongings.*

I searched into the man's pockets. In one I found
a folding knife and a plug of chewing tobacco that
was soaked and spoiled. In another pocket was a
wad of the same kind of green paper taken from
the soldiers the day before. It too was wet through.
I threw it aside. In this same pocket were four white
metal pieces of money. I knew they were of value
in trading, but I did not know how much was their
value. In later times I have learned they were four
silver dollars. A young Cheyenne there said : "Give
the money to me." I did not care for it, so I gave
it to him. He thanked me and said: "I shall use
it to buy for myself a gun." I do not remember now
his name, but he was a son of One Horn. A Sioux
picked up the wad of green paper I had thrown upon
the ground. It was almost falling to pieces, but he

In a letter published in Brady's book, Private Wm. E. Morris
tells of the death of Tanner, of Troop M, while he was after water
for the Reno wounded men. T. B. M.

260

THE SPOILS OF BATTLE

began to spread out some of the wet sheets that still
held together. Pretty soon he said:

"This is money. This is what white men use to
buy things from the traders." *

I had seen much other paper like it during the
afternoon before. Wolf Medicine had offered to
give me a handful of it. But I did not take it. I
already had thrown away some of it I had found.
But even after I was told it could be used for buying
things from the traders, I did not want it. I was
thinking then it would be a long time before I should
see or care to see any white man trader.

I went riding over the ground where we had
fought the first soldiers during the morning of the
day before. I saw by the river, on the west side, a
dead black man. He was a big man. All of his
clothing was gone when I saw him, but he had not
been scalped nor cut up like the white men had been.
Some Sioux told me he belonged to their people but
was with the soldiers.*

As some of us were looking at the body of an In-
dian who had been with the soldiers, an old Sioux
said:

"This is a Corn ** Indian, not a Crow nor Sho-
shone."

* Isaiah, a negro, Sioux interpreter for the Seventh cavalry.
T.B.M.
**The Arikaras were known as Corn people. T. B. M.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

He showed us the differences in appearance, es-
pecially the earrings and the hair dressing. The
Crow men wore their hair cut off above the forehead
al roached up. The Shoshones had almost the
same way of placing this f oretop. The Corn Indians
kept their hair in braids, parted like that of the
Sioux and Cheyennes, but the Corn Indian parting
was not in the middle of the top, as ours was. I ex-
apained again the one I had helped in beating to
death. I learned he also was a Corn Indian. I found
yet a third one. We who had killed them were young
men, and there was great excitement at the time, so
we had not observed their tribal connection. We had
supposed them to be the same Crows and Shoshones
we had fought on the upper Rosebud creek a few
days before. Now there began to be talk that maybe
these soldiers were not the same ones we |pd fought
there. Or, perhaps they had added the Corn Indians
to their forces since that time. There were different
opinions on the matter.

Some Sioux caught a mule that wandered out
from the place where the soldiers were together on
the hilltop. The animal was going down toward
the river when the Indians got it. They tried to lead
it toward their sheltered place behind a knoll, but
it would not go. It appeared to be wanting a drink
of water. One Sioux got behind it and whipped it,

262

THE SPOILS OF BATTLE

while a companion pulled at the leading strap. But
the mule just stood there, would not move. On its
back were packs of cartridges. The Sioux took these
and let the mule go.

I went with other Cheyennes along the hills north-
ward to the ground where we had killed all of the
soldiers. Lots of women and boys were there. The
boys were going about making coups by stabbing
or shooting arrows into the dead men. Some of the
bodies had many arrows sticking in them. Many
hands and feet had been cut off, and the limbs and
bodies and heads had many stabs and slashes. Some
of this had been done by the warriors, during and
immediately after the battle. More was added,
though, by enraged and weeping women relatives of
the Sioux and Cheyennes who had been killed. The
women ufed sheathknives and hatchets.

A dog was following one of the Sioux women
among the dead soldiers. I did not see any other
dog there, neither on that day nor on the day before,
when the fight was on. There were some Indian
dogs tangling among the feet of the horses at the
time of the fighting of the first soldiers, on the valley
above the camps. But even here most of them were
called away by the women and old people going to
the western hilltops.

Three different soldiers, among all of the dead in

263

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CJJSTER

both places of battle, attracted special notice from
the Indians. The first was the man wearing the
buckskin suit and who had the colored writing and
pmures on his breast and arms. Another was the
black man killed among the first soldiers on the
valley. The third was one having gold among his
teeth. We did not understand how this metal got
there, nor why it was there.

Paper boxes of ammunition were in the leather
bags carried on the saddles of the soldiers. Besides,
in all of the belts taken from the dead men there
were cartridges. Some belts had only a few left in
them. In others the loops still contained many, an
occasional one almost full. I did not see nor hear
of any belt entirely emptied of its cartridges.

All during that forenoon, as well as during the
afternoon and night before, both in the camps and
on the battle grounds, Indians were saying to each
other: "I got some tobacco." "I got coffee." "I
got two horses." "I got a soldier saddle." "I got a
good gun." Some got things they did not under-
stand.

One young Cheyenne took something from a dead
soldier just after all of them had been killed. He
was puzzled by it. Some others looked at it. I was
with them. It was made of white metal and had glass
on one side. On this side were marks of some kind*

264

THE SPOILS OF BATTLE

While the Cheyenne was looking at it he got it up
toward his ear. Then he put it up close.

"It is alive!" he said.

Others put it to their ears and listened. I put" it
up to mine.

"Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick," it was saying.

We talked about its use. We agreed generally it
was that soldier's special medicine. Many Indians
came and wondered about it. The young man de-
cided to keep it for his own medicine.

When I was getting ready the next morning to go
and fight again the soldiers staying on the hilltop,
the Cheyenne young man had a crowd around him
again examining his strange white man medicine.
They were listening, but it made no sound. After
different ones had studied it, he finally threw it away
as far as he could throw it. *

"It is not good medicine for me," he said. "It
is dead."

I saw another soldier medicine thing something
like this one, but the other one was larger and it did
not make the ticking noise. It acted, though, like
it was alive. When it was held with the glass side
up a little arrow fluttered around. When it was held
quiet for a while the arrow gradually stopped flut-
tering. Every time it stopped the point of the arrow
was toward the north, down the valley. There was

265

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

talk then of other soldiers coming from that direc-
tion, so it was decided this medicine object was useful
for finding out at any time where might be soldiers.
Little Shield had it when I saw it. He gave it to High
Walking. Another Cheyenne got a pair of field
glasses. We understood them. This was a big pair.

Cleaners for the rifles puzzled us a while. They
were in joints and were carried in a long hole in the
end of the wooden stock. Pretty soon we learned
what was their use. I saw one rifle that had a shell
of cartridge in its barrel. A Sioux had it. He could
not put into the gun any other cartridge, so he threw
it into the river.

Yellow Weasel, a Cheyenne, got a bugle. He tried
to make a noise with it, but he could not. Others
tried. Different ones puffed and blowed at it. But
nobody could make it sound out. After a while we
heard a bugle making a big noise somewhere among
the Sioux. The Cheyennes said: "The Sioux got
a good one. This one Yellow Weasel has is no good.
He might as well throw it away." But he kept it, and
it was not long until he was making it sound.

One Cheyenne got a flag. There were several
others among the Sioux. I do not know just how
many they got, but I believe I saw nine of them.

Bridle bits were thrown away, but the leather parts
were kept. I got two sets of bridle reins, but no other

266

THE SPOILS OF BATTLE

parts of the bridles. A Cheyenne gave them to me.
All of the soldier boots were taken from them. But
they were not worn by the Indians. The bottoms
were cut off and discarded. Only the tops used.
These made good leather pouches, or the leather was
cut up to make something else. Old men were al-
lowed to have all of the saddles. But only a few of
the Cheyenne old men got them. I saw lots of Sioux
old men riding around on soldier saddles, either
on the soldier horses or the Indian horses.

All of the soldier horses taken by the Indians were
good. They were fat and sleek and strong and lively.
They were better than any of the Indian horses. Some
were killed or were so badly wounded we did not want
them. But when we could scare them away from
the soldiers as the fighting was going on, we did
this. Any time that horses got among us we turned
them toward the river, for the old men or the boys
to*capture. It was easy to do this, as they were
vqjy thirsty. One big band of them went down from
the west end of the ridge.

Noisy Walking died during the night after the
great battle. Six Cheyennes now had been killed.
Another man, Open Belly, was badly wounded and
was expected to die. He was about thirty years old,
but he had neither wife nor children. The six dead
were:

267

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Lame White Man, age about thirty-eight, wife and
two children.

Limber Bones, age twenty, not married.

Black Bear, age twenty, not married.

Noisy Balking, age eighteen, not married.

Humfl Nose, age sixteen, not married.

Whirlwind, age sixteen, not married.

Others had wounds that crippled them but did not
threaten to kill them. Little Bird got a bullet through
a thigh. Many had scratch wounds. Sun Bear al-
most got killed. He went into the first great Chey-
enne charge. A bullet glanced off his forehead. He
was dazed and he fell down. But he got up right
away and went on fighting.

Hump Nose and Whirlwind were killed during the
first battle, above the camps. Hump Nose fell on
the west side of the river, in the valley fighting.
Whirlwind's death took place on the east side, when
he had the fight with the Corn Indian, who also was
killed. Lame White Man and Noisy Walking re-
ceived their bullets at the time of the first charge
among the Custer soldiers who rode down toward
the river. Open Belly, our man who died after we
arrived east of Powder river, was hit by a soldier bul-
let when he was riding across the bench where the
stone house of the Custer Battlefield National Ceme-
tery now is standing. Limber Bones and Black Bear

268

THE SPOILS OF BATTLE

were killed on the steep slope just north of the pres-
ent Custer stone monument. Both Limber Bones and
Black Bear were a little taller than I WLS./ After
they were gone I was the tallest young manf in the
tribe, I believe. I heard of a few women-riding out
to watch the fighting, but I did not see ail^ women
there during that time. None of them was doing
any fighting. All of them kept far back.

The Indians supposed all the time that these were
the same soldiers we had fought on the upper Rose-
bud valley. Little Wolf and his people, arriving just
after the fight ended, explained to us that these men
just killed came from another direction. Then, when
we learned that the Indians with these soldiers at
the Little Bighorn were Corn Indians, not Crows
or Shoshones, it began to appear that the Little Wolf
band had it right, that these really were not the Rose-
bud battle soldiers.

During the afternoon it was learned that yet an-
other band of white men were coming up the Little
Bighorn valley.* All of the young men wanted to
fight them. A council of chiefs was held. They
decided we should continue in our same course not
fight any soldiers if we could get away without doing
so. All of the Indians then got ready to move.

*The Terry-Gibbon forces. They camped that night on the site of
the present Crow Agency. T. B. M.

269

A WAKRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Lame White Man, age about thirty-eight, wife and
two children.

Limber Bones, age twenty, not married.

Black Bear, age twenty, not married.

Noisy Balking, age eighteen, not married.

Hun$ Nose, age sixteen, not married.

Whirlwind, age sixteen, not married.

Others had wounds that crippled them but did not
threaten to kill them. Little Bird got a bullet through
a thigh. Many had scratch wounds. Sun Bear al-
most got killed. He went into the first great Chey-
enne charge. A bullet glanced off his forehead. He
was dazed and he fell down. But he got up right
away and went on fighting.

Hump Nose and Whirlwind were killed during the
first battle, above the camps. Hump Nose fell on
the west side of the river, in the valley fighting.
Whirlwind's death took place on the east side, when
he had the fight with the Corn Indian, who also was
killed. Lame White Man and Noisy Walking re-
ceived their bullets at the time of the first charge
among the Custer soldiers who rode down toward
the river. Open Belly, our man who died after we
arrived east of Powder river, was hit by a soldier bul-
let when he was riding across the bench where the
stone house of the Custer Battlefield National Ceme-
tery now is standing. Limber Bones and Black Bear

268

THE SPOILS OF BATTLE

were killed on the steep slope just north of the pres-
ent Glister stone monument. Both Limber Bones and
Black Bear were a little taller than I was.. After
they were gone I was the tallest young marf in the
tribe, I believe. I heard of a few women-riding out
to watch the fighting, but I did not see arfy women
there during that time. None of them was doing
any fighting. All of them kept far back.

The Indians supposed all the time that these were
the same soldiers we had fought on the upper Rose-
bud valley. Little Wolf and his people, arriving just
after the fight ended, explained to us that these men
just killed came from another direction. Then, when
we learned that the Indians with these soldiers at
the Little Bighorn were Corn Indians, not Crows
or Shoshones, it began to appear that the Little Wolf
band had it right, that these really were not the Rose-
bud battle soldiers.

During the afternoon it was learned that yet an-
other band of white men were coming up the Little
Bighorn valley.* All of the young men wanted to
fight them. A council of chiefs was held. They
decided we should continue in our same course not
fight any soldiers if we could get away without doing
so. All of the Indians then got ready to move.

*Thc Terry-Gibbon forces. They camped that night on the site of
the present Crow Agency. T. B. M.

269

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Mourning families abandoned and left behind their
meat, robes, cooking pots and everything else they
owned, as well as their vacated or destroyed lodges.
That was a custom among all of the Sioux tribes the
same as with the Cheyennes. I saw several Sioux
tepees left standing. I supposed there were dead
warriors in some of them, or perhaps in all of them.
Some Cheyenne tepees were left standing. These had
belonged to families wherein a member had been
killed. But, except the lodges and property aban-
doned by mourning people, all of the possessions of
the Indians were taken with us.

Late in the afternoon the procession of tribes was
in movement. Again, as at all other times, the Chey-
ennes went ahead and the Uncpapas came last. Sev-
eral parties of young men went aside to go across the
river and shoot again among the soldiers camped on
the high hill. A few stayed there until darkness
camQ. Uncpapa scouts watched behind, observing
particularly the new band of soldiers coming up the
Little Bighorn valley.

We set out southwestward up the small valley of
a creek just south of the present Garryowen railroad
station. Soon we mounted to the benchland and
traveled southward. Late in the night, the whole
caravan stopped and rested a few hours, all sleeping
in the open, with no lodges. At daylight we traveled

270

THE SPOILS OF BATTLE

on, now following up the Little Bighorn valley. Dur-
ing the afternoon we stopped for camping. The
Cheyenne circle, at the leading or southern end, was
about two miles below the mouth of Greasy Grass
creek, below the place where now is located the town
of Lodge Grass, Montana.

271

XI

Rovings after the Victory.

All of the lodges were set up here below the mouth
of Greasy Grass creek. All of the six tribal camp
circles were arranged as they had been before the
soldiers came and troubled us. The Cheyennes again
were on one of their favorite old camping spots.
They still were at the advance side of the group of
circles. The Uncpapas still were at the opposite
side.

I was stationed as a wolf to keep lookout from a
hill near our camp. As I sat there, an Indian young
man rode up to me. He asked me, in Sioux language,
"Who are you?" I said, "I am a Cheyenne." He
got down from his horse. He had tobacco and a pipe,
and we had a smoke together. He told me he be-
longed to the Waist and Skirt people, but I already
could see that, by his earrings. All of the Waist and
Skirt men wore elk teeth hanging from their ears.
After we had smoked and visited a while, he said:

"I think the big chief of the soldiers we killed
was named Long Hair. One of my people killed him.
He has known Long Hair many years, and he is sure
this was him. He could tell him by the long and
wavy yellow hair."

272

ROVINGS AFTER THE VICTORY

This was the first time I ever had heard of any
such person as Long Hair. The news was interesting
to me at first, but after I had thought a few moments
about it the story seemed not very important. I
recalled myself having seen at least three soldiers
having long and light-colored hair. One of these I
had shot after he was dead. Just after the end of
the fighting I saw this long-haired soldier lying there
without any appearance of wounds on him. So I
put the muzzle of my rifle against the side of his head
and sent a bullet through it. This man's clothing
was gone when I first saw him. I had not any thought
about whether or not he was a chief.

A great council was held at the Greasy Grass camp
that night. Chiefs of all of the tribes were there. It
was out of doors, in the midst of the camp circles.
I believe it was at the Ogallala camp, but I am not
sure. At this council I heard an Uncpapa Sioux war
chief say:

"Long Hair was big chief of the soldiers. I saw
him there, and I killed him. I know it was him. I
could not mistake the long and wavy yellow hair/* *

I did not hear anyone else during that time make
claims of knowing who was the soldier big chief.

In fact, his wife and others to whom he was well known assert that
General Ouster was not wearing his hair long at the tune he was killed.
For some time before that occasion he had kept his hair cut short*
T.B.M.

273

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

There was some talk, though, that all of those sol-
diers had been chosen specially for their bravery and
had been sent out direct from Washington. It was
generally agreed that whoever was the big chief of
them, he must have been the big chief of all of the
white man soldiers in the world.

At this council I heard chiefs of the different tribes
announce the number of their killed. The Cheyennes
had lost 6. Uncpapas, 7. Arrows All Gone, 4. Min-
neconjoux, 3. Ogallalas, 2. I have forgotten the
numbers from the Waist and Skirt, Burned Thigh
and Blackfeet Sioux. I think, though, that all of
these three tribes together might have lost 7 or 8.
Total deaths, about 30.*

The Cheyenne warriors had a dance at this Greasy
Grass camp. Charcoal Bear, our medicine chief,
brought the buffalo skin from the sacred tepee and
put it upon the top of a pole in the center of our
camp circle. We danced around this pole. No
women took part in the dancing. Many of them had
sore legs from the mourning cuts. Our dance was
not carried very far into the night. It was mostly
a short telling of experiences, a counting of coups.
My father told, in a few words, what his two sons
had done. When he had ended the telling of my

*The small loss is explainable by the extensive suiciding among
the soldiers. T.B.M.

274

ROVINGS AFTER THE VICTORY

warrior acts, he said: "The name of this son of
mine is Wooden Leg." Up to this time some people
still used my boyhood name, Eats From His Hand.
But now this old name was entirely gone.

Some of the Sioux people had little dances here,
the same as the Cheyennes were having. But not all
of them did this. The Uncpapas did not dance.
They said it was not time, that we ought to mourn
yet a while. Some of them came to look on quietly
at our gathering.

Only one sleep we stayed at the Greasy Grass loca-
tion. The great band of Indians trailed from there
on up the Little Bighorn valley. Our next stop was
near where is the present town of Wyola.

An accidental killing took place during the time
we were at this next camp. That afternoon, as we
were traveling, a Cheyenne named Coffee was among
the men who hunted buffalo along the way. He got
a load of meat on his pack horse and joined us just
after the camp had been set up. He belonged to our
tribal medicine lodge, as a helper for the chief medi-
cine man. He rode to the medicine lodge and made
a movement to dismount from his horse. He had
a rifle strapped in front of his body. As he swung
himself from the horse, his rifle accidentally was dis-
charged. Coffee originally had been a Southern
Cheyenne, but for many years he had been a mem-

275

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

her of our tribe. He was an old man, but he never
was married. He said that one having his position
as helper to the medicine chief ought not to have a
wife. But Charcoal Bear, the medicine chief, had a
wife and two children.

After one sleep at this place we turned eastward
and went over the hills to the extreme upper Rose-
bud. One sleep at this place. We moved on down,
going past the ground where we had fought the sol-
diers on this creek. We camped a few miles below
where this fight had taken place. One sleep here.
The movement was kept up down this valley. The
next camp was pitched near the present Busby.
After one sleep here we traveled on northward. This
time we stopped at our favorite old camping place
on the Rosebud above the mouth of Muddy creek.

I was not with the camps at all of these stopping
places. Like many others, I was out a part of the
time looking for meat. I took it to my people when
I could get any. Buffalo were scarce along the line
of travel, so most of the game killed was elk, deer or
antelope. Many people among the Indians were
hungry for more food. Partly because of the fast
traveling and partly because the hunters were not
going far on account of soldiers in the country, the
food demands of the people could not be supplied to
their full satisfaction.

276

ROVINGS AFTER THE VICTORY

I went out with one party, though, as far as the
present town of Sheridan, Wyoming. We found there
plenty of buffalo. We loaded our pack horses and
started to return to the moving Indians. But some-
body saw soldiers, or it was said they had been seen.
I did not see them. But I quickly threw off the meat
from my pack horse, the same as the others did, and
we rode away southward as fast as our horses could
go. Not far off we got into a wooded canyon and hid
there until darkness came. At night we went back
and picked up all of our meat. We then traveled on,
and the next day we got to our people.

We Cheyennes had a dance at our camp near the
mouth of Muddy creek, on the Rosebud. I do not
recollect any dance in any other tribal circle at this
place. Our warriors again talked in public of acts
at the great battle. One would dance, flourish a
gun, and say, "I killed a white man soldier." An-
other would do the same. Each one who did this
had to have witnesses to verify his claims. A few
women took part in the dance. My grandmother
was one of them. She had the bearded face scalp I
gave to her, and she told of my doings in the fight
with the first soldiers. After this dance, she threw
away the scalp.

One sleep we stayed here. Then we continued
down the Rosebud. The next stop was below the

277

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT OUSTER

mouth of Lame Deer creek, as it now is known. We
moved from there on down to the mouth of the stream
now called Greenleaf creek. All along the Rosebud
we had seen the trail of the soldiers we had killed
at the Little Bighorn. We now had full proof that
they had come up this valley from the Yellowstone.
After one sleep at the Greenleaf camping place we
left the Rosebud valley.

The direction of movement was turned eastward.
We followed the little branch stream to its head and
went on over the divide to Tongue river. Stopped
there, one sleep. Next day, traveled up this valley
to Otter creek and on up this little valley several
miles. One sleep in the camp on Otter creek. The
next camp was set up at the head of Otter creek. The
day after that our great band of tribes went over an-
other divide and camped on what the white people
call Pumpkin creek. One sleep, then eastward to a
branch of Powder river. Next, to Powder river.
Following, one day of travel down Powder river and
one more camping beside this stream. Crossed the
river and went up a creek flowing into its east side.
This creek is the next one south of that one where
the combined Indians had traveled in starting from
east of Powder river toward the valleys westward from
there.

We now were in the same region where all of the

278

ROVINGS AFTER THE VICTORY

tribes had come together three months before this
time. In coming back to the gathering place all
of the Indians traveled together, as we had done in
going westward from it. The Cheyennes still were
moving in the advance and camping in the advance.
The Uncpapas still were following last and camping
last. On the return we hurried from place to place.
There was no stopping for special hunting. I be-
lieve we remained only one sleep at each of the camps.
I may have forgotten one or two places of our camp-
ing. I think, though, that it was sixteen or more
sleeps from the battle camp on the Little Bighorn
back to this place on the creek east of Powder river.

Open Belly, our badly wounded man, died here
east of Powder river. One wounded Sioux had died
along the way. This brought the Cheyenne loss from
the battle up to seven. Some Sioux count also was
increased by one. All of the Indians then had lost
about thirty-two warriors as a result of the great
battle. The wounded men had been carried during
all of the journey on travois beds. That makes easier
riding than any other way I know. But it may have
been they could have become well if during all the
time they had been quiet in a lodge.

The Indians were hungry. Our meat was all gone.
The horses had been traveling hard every day and
were tired. The fat and sleek soldier horses we had

279

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

were more tired than the Indian ponies. It was said
this was because they were not used to living on
grass alone, as the Indian ponies were.

We stayed four or five sleeps at this camping place.
Every day the chiefs met in council. Finally, they
decided on a separation of the tribes. It seemed there
was no danger just now from soldiers. By traveling
separately, or in small bands, more meat and skins
could be taken by each tribe or band. The horses
all could get more grass when scattered. Everybody
agreed it was best to separate. I think this was the
intention of the chiefs all the time, but we were stay-
ing together for yet a few days of final visiting in a
quiet camp before the separation.

The Cheyennes went first down the Powder river.
We followed it to where it flows into Elk river. We
found a big pile of corn in sacks by Elk river. We
fed some of it to our soldier horses. Some people
cooked a little and ate it. We emptied out most of
the remainder and took the sacks.

By Powder river we saw lying dead an old man
and an old woman. They were Sioux. Both of the
bodies were humped down close together among some
brush as if they had been in hiding there when they
had been shot. Many bullet wounds were in both of
them, all of the holes in the back of the head and
back of the body. There were lots of tracks of sol-

280

ROVINGS AFTER THE VICTORY

dier horses there. The old man was scalped, but
the woman was not.

We saw a steamboat on Elk river. Soldiers were
on the boat. As they passed along, some of the
Cheyennes shot at them. I do not know whether or
not any soldier was hit by the shots. They did not
shoot back at us. The boat did not stop.

We moved back up Powder river. We camped
and hunted all along far above the forks of the Pow-
der and the Little Powder. We went over to Tongue
river, to the upper Rosebud, to the upper Little Big-
horn branches. We moved back and forth among
the valleys of these higher regions. We got plenty
of game and our horses had plenty of grass*

Four Cheyennes, Bear Man, Bullets Not Harm
Him, Big Nose and myself Wooden Leg, went out
from a camp on the upper Rosebud to get buffalo
meat. We went far out southward. We got our pack
horses loaded and started back. We heard many
shots following close after each other.

"Soldiers are after somebody," we agreed.

We hurried away from that neighborhood. None
of us went to look. The next day at camp we learned
what had happened. Some soldiers had been after
a mixed hunting party of Sioux and Cheyennes. Tall
Bear, a Cheyenne, had been killed.

All during the remainder of the summer the Chey-

281

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

ennes traveled and hunted. We kept mostly in the
upper parts of the valleys. Not many of our people
went to the reservation. But some more came out
and joined us. Dull Knife, the old man chief, was
with us soon after the separation of the tribes. All
of the four old men chiefs now were here. Charcoal
Bear kept our tribal medicine lodge set up at every
place of camping. When the leaves began to fall we
were on Powder river. We camped and hunted along
up its valley. As the snows of winter began to fall
we moved farther up.

Ten of us young men decided to go on a war party
against the Crows. Black Hawk and Yellow Weasel
were the big men or leaders of this party. We left
the tribal camp on a small creek flowing into the west
side of Powder river. It was located then almost in
the Big Horn mountains, far up beyond where now is
Buffalo, Wyoming.

Six sleeps we ten Cheyenne warriors traveled west-
ward and northward, looking all the time for Crows.
We would kill any Crow found, if we could, or what-
ever horses of theirs we might find would be made
ours if we could get them. Our sixth sleep was on
the west side of the Bighorn river, just below the
place where in past times had been the soldier fort.*

* Port C. F. Smith.

282

ROVINGS AFTER THE VICTORY

We now were in Crow land. But we had not yet seen
any Crow Indian.

We followed on down the west side of the Bighorn
to its mouth. We crossed there to its east side and
went a little distance down the Elk river. There we
saw a Crow man, woman and some children traveling
up the valley with only their one lodge. We hid
back. They did not see us. We decided not to harm
them. We turned back and set off up the east side
of the Bighorn. When we got to the mouth of the
Little Bighorn we followed up this valley. Our tenth
sleep of the war journey found us camping where now
is Crow Agency, only a short distance down the river
from where had been the great combined camp when
we had fought the soldiers during the early summer.

We rode next morning all about the camping
places of the Indians when the soldiers had come.
We looked where had been the little shelter camps
after the battle with them. We went then across the
river and over to the ridge where we had killed all of
the soldiers. The weather was clear and chilly, but
not cold. There was no snow on the ground. We
led our horses as we walked all over the battle field.
Each man told the others of his own experiences dur-
ing the fight. I showed them where Noisy Walking
had been found and where my brother and I came
upon the body of Lame White Man. The places

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

where all of the killed Cheyennes and many of the
Sioux had fallen were known by some one or other
of us. We visited all of these places and talked of
the dead Indian friends.

Dirt and sagebrush mounds now were at the places
where had been the dead soldiers. In a few places
we could see some parts of their bodies exposed. But
mostly the graves were good, except they had no
stones piled over them. At one end of many different
ones of the graves was a straight board stuck into the
ground, to stand up there. They were straight
boards, not crosses. Dead horses were lying in decay
here and there among the graves. Wolves had been
eating at the horses. I did not notice any place where
jf appeared wolves had been at the graves.

I found a folding knife that had belonged to some
soldier. Another of our party found a Sioux sheath-
knife. Soldier boot bottoms and other pieces of sol-
dier belongings were scattered here and there. I
saw some broken Cheyenne spears. There were many
hundreds of arrows lying all along the ridge and on
its sides. Some were Cheyenne arrows, but mostly
they were from the bows of the Sioux.

I hunted specially for cartridges. The others also
picked them up, but they were getting them to give to
friends. I was the only one of this party having a
soldier rifle. There were lots of empty shells, and

284

ROVINGS AFTER THE VICTORY

from place to place we picked up loaded ones. Near
a dead horse I found a whole pasteboard boxful of
good cartridges. There were forty of them in the
box. The box had been rotted by rain and had fallen
apart, but the cartridges were good. They only
needed to be wiped dry. I filled my belt and put the
remainder into my pockets. Others found other box-
fuls.

We went on southward over the hills to the place
where the first soldiers had hidden themselves on the
hilltop. We found other cartridges here. After hav-
ing looked a while at this place we forded the river to
the west side and walked about over the valley where
the first fight had taken place. One other man and
myself were the only two in this party who had bee^
in this battle. We told our companions about how
we chased the soldiers and killed them. I showed
them right where I had taken my rifle from the sol-
dier and where I had helped in killing the Corn In*
dian. I pointed out to them the place where I was
hidden and where was the soldier when I shot him as
he was dipping up water. I told of my getting the
wet tobacco from a hip pocket and the metal money
from another pocket. They laughed when I told
of having thrown aside the wet paper money the sol-
dier had folded and laid into a little paper box.

We slept this night only a little distance up the

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

valley from this first battle ground. Here we made
for ourselves the same kind of little brush shelters
we had been making each night. We slept by twos
or in groups, to keep warm.

The next morning we set out over the divide east-
ward toward the Rosebud. We followed the same
trail regularly used by the Indians traveling this re-
gion, the same that had been used by the soldiers in
coming to us. Four more sleep camps we made in
going on eastward to Tongue river and up this valley.
Somewhere below the mouth of Hanging Woman
creek our scouts caught sight of Indians coming down
the valley. All of us got to where we might see.
Most of the Indians were afoot. Only a few had
horses. We watched and wondered. Who were
these people?

The band of walking Indians were our Cheyennes,
the whole tribe. They had but little food. Many of
them had no blankets nor robes. They had no
lodges. Only here and there was one wearing moc-
casins. The others had their feet wrapped in loose
pieces of skin or of cloth. Women, children and old
people were straggling along over the snow-covered
trail down the valley. The Cheyennes were very
poor.

Our people told us of soldiers and Pawnee Indians
having come to the camp far up Powder river where

286

ROVINGS AFTER THE VICTORY

we had left them. The Cheyennes had to run away
with only a few small packs, as our small band had
done on lower Powder river during the late winter
before this time. The same as we had done, they had
to see all of their lodges burned and most of their
horses taken. Many of our men, women and children
had been killed. Others had died of wounds or had
starved and frozen to death on the journey through
the mountain snow to Tongue river. Three Chey-
enne women and a boy had been captured by the
Pawnees.*

The tribe were hunting now for the Ogallala Sioux,
where Crazy Horse was the principal chief. These
Sioux were somewhere in this region. We crossed to
the east side of Tongue river just above the present
white man town of Ashland, Montana, and went over
the benches to Otter creek. After a night of sleep
here we moved on eastward over the little mountains.
Travel and sleep, travel and sleep, we kept going.
Eleven sleeps the tribe had journeyed when we ar-
rived at the place on Beaver creek where now is a
white man trading store and a postoffice called Stacey.
Here we found the Ogallalas.

The Ogallala Sioux received us hospitably. They
had not been disturbed by soldiers, so they had good
lodges and plenty of meat and robes. They first as-

*This Powder river fight was on November 26th, 1876.- T.B.M.

287

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

sembled us in a great body and fed us all we wanted
to eat. To all of the women who needed other food
they gave a supply. They gave us robes and blan-
kets. They shared with us their tobacco. Gift horses
came to us. Every married woman got skins enough
to make some kind of lodge for her household. Oh 9
how generous were the Ogallalas! Not any Chey-
enne was allowed to go to sleep hungry or cold that
night.

We had traveled and hunted much during past
times with these Sioux people. At all times there
was some one or more families of them with us or
some of our Cheyennes with them. Of our friendly
intermarrying, there was more connection with the
Ogallalas than with any other tribe. Their people
during the summer and fall had been going to and
from the agency more than ours had been. Our few
incoming Cheyennes had brought us some news about
the soldiers we had fought on the Little Bighorn.
But the Ogallalas informed us more fully. From
them we learned that the big chief of the soldiers was
Long Hair, the same man who several years before
this time had fought the Southern Cheyennes.

After we had rested with the Ogallalas a few days
the chiefs counciled together and decided that the
tribes should join in movement up the Tongue river.
All of us then followed our back trail over to Otter

288

ROVINGS AFTER THE VICTORY

creek and on to Tongue river. We moved slowly and
hunted along the way. The Cheyennes got a new
supply of buffalo meat and many more skins for en-
larging their lodges. We crossed Tongue river on the
ice, to the east side. Not far up the valley we went
back over the ice, to the west side. We traveled then
on up the benchland trails, to Hanging Woman
creek. The Ogallalas had some cattle they had taken
from white people or from soldiers. These were
butchered along the way. They had yet also a few of
the horses taken at the battle on the Little Bighorn.
But these horses that had been so fat and strong were
now poor and weak. Most of them already had died.
They did not know how to find winter food like the
Indian ponies could find it.

At Hanging Woman creek it was decided the two
tribes would separate. The Ogallalas would go east-
ward up this stream. The Cheyennes would continue
on up the Tongue river valley. As usual, a few Chey-
ennes joined the Sioux and a few of their people de-
cided to come with us. My sister Crooked Nose
started with the other people. Chiefs Crazy Horse
and Water All Gone and a few other Ogallalas came
to us. Just as the tribes were about to separate, some
scouts brought in the report:

"Soldiers are coming!"

The two bands of Indians began to come again to-

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

gether. The warriors mingled themselves as being of
one tribe. The women and children and older men
of both sets of people moved together up the Tongue
river. The young men put themselves behind their
fleeing people. Somebody said to me:

"They have captured some women. Your sister
is one of them."

My heart jumped when this news came to me. I
lashed my horse into a run toward where it was said
they had been captured. There I saw tracks of sol-
dier horses. The trail led to the river ice. On the
opposite side of the river, the west side, were soldiers.
They began shooting at me. I had to get away. I did
not see any of the women, so I supposed they had
been killed. My heart then became bitter toward
these white men.

I hid my horse in the brush at the foot of a ridge
where some warriors were on its top. I walked up
there. Many Indians were hidden behind rocks and
were shooting toward the soldiers. I chose for my-
self a hiding place and did the same. I had my sol-
dier rifle and plenty of cartridges. Many soldiers
were coming across on the ice, to fight us. But we
had the advantage of them because of our position on
the high and rocky ridge.

Big Crow, a Cheyenne, kept walking back and

290

ROVINGS AFTER THE VICTORY

forth along the ridge on the side toward the soldiers.
He was wearing a warbonnet. He had a gun taken
from the soldiers at the Little Bighorn battle. He
used up his cartridges and came back to us hidden be-
hind the rocks, to ask for more. Cheyennes and
Sioux here and there each gave him one or two or
three. He soon got enough to fill his belt. He went
out again to walk along the ridge, to shoot at the
soldiers and to defy them in their efforts to hit him
with a bullet. All of us others kept behind the rocks,
only peeping around at times to shoot. Crazy Horse,
the Ogallala chief, was near me. Bullets glanced
off the shielding rocks, but none hit us. One came
close to me. It whizzed through the folds of my
blanket at my side.

Big Crow finally dropped down. He lay there
alive, but apparently in great distress. A Sioux went
with me to crawl down to where he was and bring
him into shelter. Another Sioux came after us.
When we got to the wounded man I took hold of his
feet and the two Sioux grasped his hands. The
three of us crawled and dragged him along on the
snow. Bullets began to shower around us. We let
loose our holds and dodged behind rocks. When the
firing quieted, we crept out and again got him. My
brother just then called out to me: "Wooden Leg,

291

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

come, we are going away from here." I let loose
again and went to my brother. The two Sioux con-
tinued to drag Big Crow.

The Indians moved back and forth, down and up,
fighting the soldiers at different times all day. After
darkness came, the fighting stopped. The group
where I was built a little fire, so we might warm our-
selves. As soon as the light of it showed, the bullets
began to sing over our heads. We quickly threw
snow upon the fire. Then we moved to another place.
I got down where I had left my horse. It was still
there. I mounted and joined my friends. All of the
Indians left there during the night. Some of the
Ogallalas already had gone on up Hanging Woman
creek. Chiefs Crazy Horse and Water All Gone, with
many lodges of their people, attached themselves to
the Cheyennes. We went up Tongue river. We
traveled all night and all the next day before we
stopped to camp.

We did not know where these soldiers had come
from.* We did not know either how far they might
follow us. But our scouts remaining behind saw
them go back down Tongue river. At the camp, Big
Crow's relatives went about inquiring for him. I

* These soldiers were commanded by Colonel Nelson A. Miles. They
had come from Fort Keogh, which he had established on the Yellow-
stone just above the mouth of Tongue river. This fight was on
January I, 1877. T. B. M.

292

ROVINGS AFTER THE VICTORY

told where I last had seen him. Finally, they found
the two Sioux who had been with him when I left
him. These men said he was dead. That was our
one man lost in the battle. Two Sioux were killed.

The missing Cheyennes were: Sweet Woman, an
old woman, age fifty or older. Lame White Man's
widow and her two girls. Little Chief's wife, their
girl and their boy. My sister Crooked Nose, past
twenty-one years old. A boy belonging to some other
family. There were four women and five children.
These were said to be in one group together, and all
were captured by the soldiers. We were not sure,
though, but some of them or all of them might have
been wounded or killed.

The Cheyennes and the few Ogallalas now with us
traveled far up Tongue river. We found plenty of
buffalo there. We went on west to the upper Little
Bighorn. After camping and hunting there, we went
farther west to the Bighorn at the mouth of Rotten
Grass creek. We did not stay here long. We re-
turned to the Little Bighorn. Most of the last part
of the winter was spent in camp on this valley. All
of the time during the next few months we had good
hunting. Soldiers did not trouble us nor we did not
trouble them.

Almost the entire Northern Cheyenne tribe was in
this winter camp on the upper Little Bighorn. Little

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Wolf, Dull Knife, Dirty Moccasins and Old Bear, our
four old men chiefs, were here. Charcoal Bear, the
medicine chief, had kept possession of the sacred
buffalo head through all of our distress. We had
now as good a medicine lodge for it as we ordinarily
had. This lodge was at its usual place at the back part
of the space within our horseshoe camp circle. All
of the people had good lodges. In every way we were
living yet according to our customary habits. We
were not bothering any white people. We did not
want to see any of them. We felt we were on our
own land. We had killed only such people as had
come for driving us away from it. So, our hearts
were clean from any feeling of guilt.

294

XII

Surrender of the Cheyennes.

Just before the grass began to show itself in the
early part of the spring, two visitors arrived at our
camp on the Little Bighorn. One of these was our
captured old woman, Sweet Woman. The other was
a half-breed Sioux we called White.* Each had a
horse to ride and each was leading a pack horse. In
their packs were tobacco and other things, for gifts
to the principal chiefs. The visitors said they had
been sent out from the soldier fort at the mouth of
Tongue river, to invite us to come there and surrender
peaceably. They brought a promise from Bear
Coat,** the soldier chief there, that we should not
be harmed and should be given plenty of food.

Sweet Woman told us all of the captives were well.
She said they had been treated well, that they had a
lodge for themselves and that Bear Coat had a soldier
guard near their lodge at all times to keep other sol-
diers from bothering them. This Sweet Woman was
a sister of White Bull's wife. She was a widow. Her
husband had been dead many years. He had been

* Bruyere, a Frenchman-Sioux scout for Miles.
** The Cheyenne name for General Miles.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

a black man, and the name for him was Black Man.
As a boy he had been captured by the Cheyennes.
She was a tall and thin woman, but she was healthy.

Our chiefs counciled about this proposal. It was
decided quickly that we might as well go in that di-
rection. The final decision could be made at some
other place. We moved then eastward by camps and
sleeps of one night each. We stopped one night at
the mouth of Hanging Woman creek, where we had
fought the soldiers in the middle of* the winter before.
Some other young men and I climbed up among the
rocks where we had fought. We searched for Big
Crow's body. We found it. It was lying with the
back partly propped up against a bush in a thin group
of small pines. The right hand was up and behind
the head. The left hand was over the breast. We
could not decide whether he had been dead when left
there or had put himself into this position and had
frozen to death. We stretched out the dead man arid
covered him with stones. His people felt better when
we told them what we had done.

The half-breed Sioux traveled with us to Tongue
river. Some of the chiefs decided to go with him to
the soldier fort and find out what might happen to
the Cheyennes if all should go there. They left us
and went down the valley. The Cheyennes going on
this journey of peacemaking were: Old Wolf and

296

SURRENDER OF THE CHEYENNES

Crazy Head, tribal big chiefs. Little Creek and Two
Moons, little chiefs of the Crazy Dog and Fox war-
rior societies. White Bull, a medicine man but not a
chief. The Elk warriors did not send any chief.

The tribe and the Ogallalas with us kept on mov-
ing eastward. At Powder river it was decided to
wait for the return of the chiefs who had gone to the
fort. The Ogallalas with us separated from us and
traveled on. Most of them said they were going to
the agency. A little band of them went down Powder
river. All of the Cheyennes remained in tribal circle
camp on the west side of Powder river, above the
mouth of Little Powder river, only a short distance
above the place where we had been burned out a year
before this time.

The four chiefs came back to us at this Powder
river camp. White Bull was not with them. They
told us he had stayed with the soldiers, to scout for
them in hunting for Indians. This news did not
please us. As we looked at it, the surrendering to
the soldiers was good if one felt like doing this. But
an offer to help them to kill friends showed a bad
heart.

I was affected more, though, by other news the
chiefs brought. It was concerning my sister Crooked
Nose, one of the captives. When the chiefs were
only a part of the first day out in coming back from

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

the fort, somebody followed them to tell them about
her. She had been very sad in heart because of a
belief she never again would see her people. She
had felt better when the chiefs came, but when they
went away again she fell into deep grief. Her sorrow
was so great that she got out her hidden six-shooter
I had given to her and shot herself dead. My heart
almost stopped beating when I heard about her death
in this way. She had been a good sister, kind to
everybody.

Seven Cheyennes from the agency came to the
camp on Powder river. They had one tepee lodge
but no women were with them. They came only to
tell us we ought to surrender at the agency. They
said all of the Indians there were being fed well, were
being treated well in every way. Nobody was being
punished in any manner for past conduct in warfare
against the soldiers. To my father and to most of
the Cheyennes this sounded more attractive than the
invitation to go to the Elk river fort.* Our people
were better acquainted with conditions at the agency.
Besides, the Ogallalas had the same agency with us,
so these people also would be there. Our old men
counciled about whether the tribe should surrender.
And, if so, where they should go. It was decided to
let every Cheyenne choose for himself.

*Fort Keogh, at the mouth of Tongue river.

298

SURRENDER OF THE CHEYENNES

Little Wolf and the other principal chiefs chose to
go to the agenc^. Charcoal Bear, the medicine chief,
said the sacred buffalo head and the medicine lodge
should follow them. Their choice influenced the
course of most of the tribe. My father said we ought
to go with them. For two or three days, I believe,
the chiefs and the people talked about the matter.
Finally, the main body of the tribe set off toward the
agency. A smaller part of it determined to go to the
Elk river soldier fort. These were convinced by Two
Moons and White Bull's relatives that they would
receive better treatment there.

But not all of the Cheyennes were ready yet to
surrender at any place. Fourteen or fifteen men, six
or seven of them having wives and children, separated
off to go westward. White Hawk, a little chief of the
Elk warriors, was with them. They said they were
going to join the Minneconjoux Sioux, who then were
in camp on Rosebud creek or on a branch of it that
afterward was called Lame Deer creek. The prin-
cipal chief of these Minneconjoux Sioux was Lame
Deer.

I joined another band still desiring most the free-
dom we considered to be ours by right. Thirty-four
Cheyennes made up this band. Last Bull, leading
chief of the Fox warrior society, was the big man of
our party. His warrior followers at this time were

299

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

from all three of the societies. The people making
up this group of further hunters were these:

Last Bull, his wife and two daughters.

Many-Colored Braids, his wife, two daughters and
a son.

Little Horse, his wife, two daughters and a son.

Black Coyote, his wife and small daughter.

Dog Growing Up, his wife and one small boy.

Fire Wolf, Yellow Eagle, Spotted Wolf, Chief
Going Up a Hill, White Bird, Buffalo Paunch, Big
Nose, Meat, Medicine Wolf, Horse Road, Little
Shield, Yellow Horse, my brother Yellow Hair and
myself Wooden Leg. All of these were unmarried
young men.

Five tepee lodges were taken along and set up at
each camping place, by the wives of the five married
men. The unmarried young men slept mostly un-
sheltered, or at each camping they made for them-
selves little willow or tree branch lodges. They did
their own cooking, most of the time, but often some
young man would give a part of his meat to some
woman as payment to her for cooking his meat for
him. I dwelt all the time in the lodge of Last Bull,
as a member of his family. He felt very friendly to
me because of my having helped his wife and children
at the time the soldiers came to the Cheyenne camp
the year before, on Powder river.

300

SURRENDER OF THE CHEYENNES

Every man in this band had a good gun of some
kind. I had my rifle taken from the soldier. I had
not used up much of the ammunition I had found on
the battle grounds at that time and afterward. I did
not do any more shooting than was necessary in get-
ting plenty of meat. I was saving my cartridges for
fighting whatever soldiers might come.

We traveled and hunted all about the country on
the upper Powder river and the upper Tongue river.
We had to be moving often, because game was not
plentiful. Every day scouts were out trying to locate
buffalo. All of the time they were on the lookout too
for soldiers or for Crows or Shoshones. We were not
loafing idly. We were working and earning our
living.

A baby boy was born to the wife of Black Coyote at
one of the camps. The wife of Many-Colored Braids
took care of her, as medicine woman. As we moved
from place to place, the young woman and her baby
were put into a travois bed. The other women helped
in taking down and setting up her lodge. Her per-
sonal name was Calf Road. She was specially famous
because she had fought as a warrior with her husband
Black Coyote at the battle with the soldiers on the
upper Rosebud. Now there were thirty-five people
in our band.

I was sent alone from this band one time to scout

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

for buffalo. I took with me a pack horse to bring
back whatever meat I might get. I had on the led
horse a soldier pack saddle belonging to Last Bull.
I stayed out three sleeps. I saw a few deer and ante-
lope but no buffalo.

We were having a good many days of hunger. Our
horses had plenty of grass, but our own ribs were be-
coming thin. Our clothing was wearing out, and we
could not get enough of skins to renew them and to
keep our beds and our lodges in good order. My sol-
dier coat and breeches were gone, and my last shirt
and cloth breeches were almost in tatters. The only
good article of wear I had now was my big white hat
I had captured at the Rosebud battle.

A Cheyenne named Yellow Eagle added himself to
us. He had been at the agency not long before. We
decided to have him and White Bird go there to-
gether and spy out the conditions. They went. In
a week or so they were back among us.

"Good treatment, plenty of food, blankets, every-
thing, nobody punished," they reported.

We started right away for the agency. But not all
of us yet were ready to go there. Medicine Wolf,
Growing Dog, Meat and my brother Yellow Hair said
they were going to stay out hunting. They said
it would not be long before lots of Indians would be
back out here, the same as had been here during the

302

SURRENDER OF THE CHEYENNES

year before. I was almost persuaded to remain with
them, but Last Bull said he now was convinced the
Indians would not come back to this country. So I
kept with the main part of our band. We traveled
southeastward toward the White River agency of the
Cheyennes and the Ogallalas.

At a white man house far along our way we stopped
to see if the people there might give us some food.
The only people there were two white men. They
acted as if they were badly frightened, but we made
peace signs to them, and only two of us went to their
door. We made signs that our Indians all were very
hungry, and we asked them for something to eat.
They gave us a little beef meat and some sugar and
coffee. We were glad to get this, and we told them
our hearts were good toward them.

Three strange Indians on horseback approached us
from our front as we arrived about a day's journey
from the agency. We could see they were Indians,
but they had on soldier clothing. This alarmed us.
All of our men cocked their guns and went out in
front of the women and children. We watched and
waited. The three Indians stopped. At a distance
they made signs to us. They told us they were sol-
dier scouts come out to help us find our way to the
agency. We allowed them to join us and remain with
us the remainder of the way. One of them was a

303

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Cheyenne, another was a Sioux, the third was a Chey-
enne-Sioux named Fire Crow.

It made all of us feel good to see the hundreds of
Indian lodges as we came near to the agency.* We
galloped our horses forward. We cheered and fired
gunshots into the air. Some soldiers came running
out from their tents, but they soon saw we were
friendly and were only celebrating and notifying our
people we had come. We saw great camps of Arapa-
hoes and Ogallalas as well as the tribal camp circle
of our own Cheyennes. Many soldiers also were
there, in their own separate camp. Several of the
soldier chiefs came and shook hands with our men
and said, "How." One of these soldier chiefs we
specially liked. We learned from a Cheyenne his
name among the Indians was White Hat.** He could
make good signtalk. It appeared he understood In-
dians better than any white man soldier I ever had
seen. I suppose that was why we liked him.

A white man married to a Cheyenne woman was
acting as interpreter for the soldiers. His name was
Rowland. But White Hat did not need any inter-
preter in talking to us, he could make the signtalk so
well. After the general handshaking, White Hat
said:

* White River agency, Fort Robinson, Nebraska.
** Lieutenant W. P. Clark, who wrote a book on sign language.

304

SURRENDER OF THE CHEYENNES

"Now, you men must give to me your guns and
your horses."

We were not expecting this, but we trusted him, so
we began to do as he had asked. But Black Coyote
jumped back and said he would not give up his gun.
He cocked it and stood there. He was much excited.
Just then three Sioux dressed in soldier clothing
came riding toward us. Black Coyote aimed his gun
at them. Last Bull pushed the gun aside and said:

"Don't shoot. You are crazy."

He talked to Black Coyote, telling him that a shot
just now might cause all of us to get killed. White
Hat motioned the three Sioux to go away, and they
did so. Black Coyote then quieted down. He gave
his gun to Last Bull, and this leader gave it to a sol-
dier with White Hat. I was the only one among us
having a gun captured from the soldiers at the battle
on the Little Bighorn. When I handed it to a soldier
he gave it to White Hat. White Hat examined it with
apparent great interest. He then called other soldier
chiefs to look. Finally he asked me:

"Where did you get this gun?"

I did not answer him at once. He asked me again,
making signs so clear that I could not help but make
some kind of answer. I told him the truth. I showed
him just how I had seized it and wrenched it away
from a soldier riding toward the river during the first

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

part of the great battle a year before this time. The
way they talked about it, it appeared the Indians had
not been giving them these guns taken from the sol-
diers. After a little while, White Hat shook hands
again with me and made signs to me: "You are a
brave man. Do not be afraid any soldier will want to
kill you."

The next morning all of us went to the agency
buildings for gifts we had been told would be there
for us. Wagons came with the presents. They were
unloaded in piles. Blankets, clothing and different
kinds of food were in the piles. Two of our people
were appointed to divide up and distribute the articles
among all of us. Our hearts now were glad. It
seemed good to be here with plenty and not be in
fear of soldiers.

I received other gifts. An Ogallala Sioux pre-
sented me with a medicine pipe, the first one I had
owned since the loss of mine when the soldiers burned
out our forty lodges on lower Powder river. A Chey-
enne young man gave me a wad of paper money like
I had seen at the time of the great battle. He said:
"You can buy things at the trader's store with this
paper." I put it into my pocket. After a while I
got a Sioux young man friend to go with me tp the
agency trader's store. I took out my money and

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SURRENDER OF THE CHEYENNES

gave it all to the trader. He counted it over and over.
Then he asked me, in Sioux speech:

"Where did you get all of this money?"

My Sioux friend quickly answered:

"He got it from Custer."

The trader said to me:

"The soldiers are going to hang you." This
startled me at first, but both he and my Sioux friend
laughed, so I knew he was only joking.

"Now, what all do you want?" the trader asked,
after they had joked me a little while.

I got first a red and yellow shirt. Then I got some
breeches that fitted me much better than the pair
that had been given to me by the agency people. I
picked out a fine red blanket, a hat and a big silk
scarf. I got plenty of tobacco. I bought coffee,
sugar, meat and other things. I did not want all of
the goods I bought, but the trader kept telling me of
what I ought to have. After each time he brought me
what I asked for, he took from the money some part
of it. Then he would ask:

"And what else?"

I did not know how much the different articles were
worth. I kept on choosing some other until finally
the trader said:

"Your money is all gone."

My friend helped me to carry all of my property to

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

my home lodge. I wore the new hat just bought.
But I took along the old white hat I had captured
from the soldiers. I gave this old one to my father.
He was much pleased to get it. It was the first white
man hat he ever owned. He threw away then the
old Indian buffalo hat he had been wearing.

Some of the Cheyennes who had gone to the Elk
river soldier fort were here now. They had been
sent here by the soldiers. Other Cheyennes had
stayed at that fort, the men joining the soldiers as
scouts for them. All of these Cheyennes brought
here were dwelling in soldier tents. Many other In-
dians, Cheyennes, Ogallalas and Arapahoes, also had
the soldier tents. These were larger than most of
the Indian tepees then in use. The tepees were
smaller than usual because only a few buffalo skins
had been taken during this summer.

There was some dissatisfaction among the Chey-
ennes on account of talk of them being taken to the
South. The agent and the soldier chiefs had said we
ought to go there and be joined as one tribe with the
Southern Cheyennes. Our people did not like this
talk. All of us wanted to stay in this country near
the Black Hills. But we had one big chief, Standing
Elk, who kept saying it would be better if we should
go there. I think there were not as many as ten
Cheyennes in our whole tribe who agreed with him.

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SURRENDER OF THE CHEYENNES

There was a feeling that he was talking this way only
to make himself a big Indian among the white people.
The white men chiefs would not talk much to any
Cheyenne chief but him. They gave him extra pres-
ents and treated him as if he were the only chief in
the tribe, when he was but one of our forty tribal big
chiefs. One day he went about telling everybody:

"All get ready to move. The soldiers are going
to take us from here tomorrow.'*

Lots of Cheyennes were angry. We had under-
stood that when we surrendered we were to live on
our same White River reservation. We had given
up our guns and our horses and had quit fighting be-
cause of this promise. Now, after we had put our-
selves at this great disadvantage, the promise was to
be broken. But we could not do anything except
obey him. So, three sleeps after my small band had
come to what we thought was to be our home, the
whole tribe was on its way to what we now call
Oklahoma.

309

XIII

Taken to the South.

The soldier leader of our movement to the South
was known to us as Tall White Man. He was a good
man, always kind to the Indians. We had to do what-
ever he said we must do, but he talked good to our
chiefs, so all of us were pleased to have him guiding
us. He had with him a band of soldiers. I do not
know how many, but I think there may have been al-
most a hundred of them.

Our horses that had been taken away from us at
the agency were now returned to us. Still, many
Cheyennes did not own any. Old people who had no
animal to ride were provided with them from the
soldier herd. Or, very old or sick people were
allowed to ride in the soldier wagons. Young men
who owned no horses had to walk or borrow from
friends. I owned four. I had three of them loaned
out most of the time.

Soldier tents were used by the Indians as well as
by the soldiers. I think the Indians had a few canvas
cone tepees, but I do not remember seeing among us
any buffalo skin lodges. We had not killed for a
long time enough buffaloes to renew the old dwelling

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TAKEN TO THE SOUTH

shelters we liked so well. Wagons were used to haul
the tents. Other wagons were loaded with bread,
crackers, coffee, sugar and other food. Every day,
rations were issued to all of the soldiers and all of the
Indians.*

A drove of cattle was kept moving along behind us.
Some of them were butchered every day for meat.
This was good, but the Indians liked better the wild
meat when it could be found. Our chiefs talked to
Tall White Man about this. He listened to their
talk. He said it was good. He told them how it
would be arranged for some of the Indians to hunt
along the way.

Thirty men, ten from each of the three warrior
societies, were chosen by our warrior chiefs to do
the hunting. Each of these thirty was given a rifle.
At every time of hunting, each of them was allowed
to have five cartridges for his gun. Other Indians
were allowed also to hunt, but they had to use the
bows and arrows or whatever else they might have
for use. A few took out guns they had kept hidden
when we had surrendered at the agency, but they had
to be sly about this so the soldiers would not find out
about them.

We traveled slowly and camped often, so there

*The movement to the South began in early May, 1877. Seventy
days were spent in the journey. T. B. M.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

was plenty of time for hunting at distances from the
moving people.. The soldiers went always ahead.
The Indians followed them. The wagons came be-
hind the Indians. The drove of cattle were last. We
kept mostly along the old trails of the Cheyennes as
they had gone back and forth between the Black Hills
and the South. These were across the high lands at
the headwaters of the rivers. Not yet were many
white people living here.

Buffalo and antelope were plentiful. There were
a few deer, but no elk. I rode out at times with the
hunters, but I had neither gun nor bow and arrows.
I could do nothing but look on and wish I could do
some killing. I knew of one certain Cheyenne who
had a rifle hidden. One night in camp I said to him:

"I see every day lots of antelope. Let me take
your gun tomorrow."

I killed a buffalo the next day with his gun. I
killed also two antelope. I gave him half of the
meat. Both of us had plenty to distribute among our
friends. The soldiers never knew anything about it.
Or, none of them said anything to me.

Soldiers hunted with the Indians. All of the sol-
diers were friendly and good to us. They were good
shooters and they killed lots of game. They gave us
most of the meat. I became specially friendly with
two or three of them. I liked to be with them, and

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TAKEN TO THE SOUTH

they appeared to like me. I went at times to their
camp in the evening and visited with them. When
we were about half along our journey I asked one of
them:

"Let me take your gun tomorrow."

"Yes, you may take it," he told me.

He let me have five cartridges when I got the gun
the next morning. Oh, how good I felt on horse-
hack, having a good rifle, and after buffalo! I killed
one and brought in the best parts of its meat. I gave
the soldier his choice of it and all he wanted, when I
returned his gun that night in camp.

Either a rifle or a six shooter was loaned to me for
a day at other later times. Each time, with the rifle
came five cartridges. Each time, with the six shooter
came six loads for it. Each time, I returned the
borrowed gun at the night camp and gave the friendly
soldier whatever meat he might want. Most of them
did not want much of it, so I had at all times plenty
of the food we liked most, for our family group and
for our friends who might need it.

We camped near one certain big town far along on
our journey. None of us were allowed to go into the
town, but I went walking all about the outside of
it to look at it. As I walked I found a big piece of
wood that I wanted. I had seen at past times this
same kind of wood, and I knew its usefulness to us.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

It was the heavy piece that lays across the necks of
cattle when they draw a wagon. The Indians liked
to get these, because they made the best kind of bows
and arrows. I picked it up and lifted it over a
shoulder I went right away to my home tent lodge.

I made a good bow. My mother had in her packs
some dried sinew from buffalo back tendons. This
I used to string my bow. I made then ten arrows.
I got here and there some pieces of metal for the
points. My mother made a pouch for the bow and
arrows. She made it of a calfskin she had tanned as
we were moving. I was glad now, with the full
pouch slung from my shoulder and dangling at my
left side. Two days I spent most of our camping
time at this work.

On the first day out with my new bow and arrows
I killed a buffalo. I could have killed more, but I
did not want any more. There were not so many of
them here as we had found farther north, but we still
were finding a few. There were yet plenty of ante-
lope feeding out on the rolling hills and level lands.
An antelope, though, is hard to hit with arrows. It
can run fast and can dodge quickly. Still, if one be
chased a long time it becomes tired. Any ordinary
horse then can catch up with it. It is easy enough
then to shoot arrows into its body. One arrow often
is enough to kill it. I killed several of them, as many

314

TAKEN TO THE SOUTH

as I wanted to kill, while we were going on our way.
I killed also a few more buffalo.

One sleep before we got to the Southern Chey-
enne agency we had some special doings. The agent
there came out to see us. He had with him a half-
breed Cheyenne as interpreter. They went to every
tent of the Indians. At each place the interpreter
asked the names and he wrote them on paper. We
were in camp beside a soldier fort. That evening I
saw some of the soldiers there trying to rope loose
horses. I went to them and asked them to let me try
it. They did. I could loop the lariat noose over a
running horse almost every time I tried. The sol-
diers cheered. They were very friendly to me.

The thirty Cheyennes who had been allowed to
have soldier guns for hunting were told now they
must give back these guns. But Little Wolf and
Standing Elk talked to Tall White Man about this.
They said: "Let us keep these guns for hunting, or
we might need them for protecting ourselves." But
the good soldier chief replied: "No, I cannot do that.
They must be returned to us." Others of our chiefs
joined Little Wolf and Standing Elk. Tall White
Man sat in a long council with them. Finally, he
agreed:

"Yes, the Cheyennes may keep the few guns they
have."

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

I learned in the South the white man name of
Long Hair, the soldier big chief we had killed on
the Little Bighorn. I was told he was called Gen-
eral Custer. I had heard this name spoken at the
White River agency, but I did not understand clearly
who was meant by it. The Southern Cheyennes
knew of him because of his having fought against
them before he had come into our northern country.
They had surrendered to him.

A few of our Northern Cheyennes had not yet
joined us before we left the White River agency,
at the North. Or, some of these fled from us as
soon as it was decided we must go to the South. My
brother Yellow Hair had not yet come in to sur-
render. He stayed hunting or he went to the Ogal-
lalas. Not long after we became settled in the new
home the news came to us that he had been killed.
He was hunting on Crow creek, a stream flowing
into the east side of upper Tongue river, when some
white men not soldiers shot him. Our family now
was made up of my father and mother, myself * my
younger sister and the small boy brother.

My first shoes were given to me at the southern
agency. They were too big, but I wore them a part
of the time. All of my life before this, I had 4orn
only the moccasins made by Indians. I yet liked

316

TAKEN TO THE SOUTH

best the moccasins, but we did not have skins enough
to make all of them we needed.

I did some hunting in the southern country. But
the hunting was not for the large food game animals.
Very few of these got on the reservation, and we
were not allowed to go off the reservation for hunt-
ing. So, my searching for something to shoot at with
bow and arrows or with gun was for whatever small
game could be found there.

On one certain bow and arrow hunt I was afoot
and alone. The weather was hot. I was tired and
sweating. I went to the shade of two big trees. As
I rested there, a fluttering noise attracted my at-
tention to the tops of two trees. I looked. There
sat an eagle perched high up. I aimed an arrow
and shot. No harm done. I drew out another ar-
row and fitted it to my bowstring. I aimed more
carefully this time. In a moment after the second
shot, the eagle fluttered and tumbled to the ground
out a little distance from the trees. I ran out there.
The big bird flopped and hobbled along away from
me. Before I could get hold of it the eagle had
lifted itself into the air. It flew on and up, farther
and higher. I watched it until it was gone entirely
from my view.

I learned how to hunt specially for eagles. Their

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

regular sleeping places were at the tops of big trees.
I would go out on horseback and locate myself un-
der a big tree just as darkness was about to come.
One night I sat under a tree waiting. I had both
a rifle and a six shooter. Two eagles came. I shot
and killed one with the rifle. I jerked out the six
shooter and fired at the other one. It too tumbled
down dead. That was good shooting, considering
that the light was dim. But always in shooting eagles
at night the dark body against the sky made a good
enough target.

On another eagle hunt at night, when I shot up
into the tree the eagle fell to the ground wounded
but not dead. It lay there moving about a little but
not much. I ran to it and seized it, to hold it while
I might beat it with the handle of my pony whip.
It grasped in its two taloned feet my left forearm
and my right thigh just above the knee. I struck it
with the whip handle, but this only made it sink
the talons in more deeply. I had to pry them loose.
Then I beat it to death. I still own and make regular
use of a fan made from a wing of that eagle.

I shot one certain eagle in a tree above my head
one night. Right after I fired the shot it tumbled.
But it did not fall to the ground. I looked up among
the branches, but I could not see it. I began to look
about me on the ground. Just then a heavy thump

318

TAKEN TO THE SOUTH

on top of my head almost knocked me down. The
eagle had lodged somewhere and then had fallen.
It seized my hat in its talons and bounced off my
head to the ground. There I killed it with my six
shooter.

One night, as I stood watching under a tree I saw
something moving along on a branch high up. It
did not appear to be an eagle, but when it stopped on
the branch I aimed my rifle and fired. It dropped
straight down and plumped hard upon the ground.
It was dead. It was to me a strange animal. It
looked somewhat like the badgers of the northern
country, except this animal I had killed was smaller.
I "remembered, too, that badgers do not live in trees.
When I took it to the home lodge I found out what
it was. The white people call this kind of animal a
coon. I afterward saw others. I saw also what the
white people call possums. We ate these little ani-
mals when we could get them.

The tallest Indian I ever saw was a Southern Chey-
enne young woman. I first saw her at one of our
Omaha dances. I stood beside her, for measurement.
The top of my head came just above the level of her
shoulders. She was extremely slender and she stood
up straight, not stooping. Her name was Slit Eyes.
I did not see her father, but I saw her mother. The
mother was a short woman. This very tall young

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

woman died when she was about twenty years old.

After we had been a year on this reservation, many
of our people began to ask to be taken back to the
North. There was no game here, we were not al-
lowed to go off the reservation for hunting, and we
were not given food as it had been promised we
should be given. At times, some of our young men
would violate the orders and would slip away from
the reservation to get a buffalo or some other animal
good to eat. Some white people said the Indians were
killing their cattle. I do not know. I did not do
this. I stayed all the time on the reservation. But
if any Indians did kill the white men cattle they
did so because they were very hungry and could not
find any wild game. We ate the beef because it was
the best we could get. We always liked better the
wild game.

There was much sickness among the Northern
Cheyennes. To us it was a new kind of sickness.
Chills and fever and aching of the bones dragged
down most of us to thin and weak bodies. Our peo-
ple died, died, died, kept following one another out
of this world. Finally, Chief Little Wolf declared
that he for one was going to move back North,
whether the white people consented or not. Others
said they would follow him. The agent told them
that soldiers would go on their trail and would kill

320

TAKEN TO THE SOUTH

them. They were promised more food. They waited
for it, but it did not come. More people flocked to
Little Wolf's side. Dull Knife said he too would
go. Late in the summer, more than half of the tribe
started out. Little Wolfs last message to the
agent was:

"The soldiers may kill all of us, but they cannot
make us stay in this country."

Soldiers went after them. Other soldiers from
other places were sent out to head them off. The
Cheyennes were hunted from all directions. They
were found many times, but each time the Cheyennes
fought off their pursuers and kept on going north-
ward. Many of our people were killed, but the most
of them got back to their old home country and
were allowed to stay there.

My father and I considered joining Little Wolf.
But we had managed in one way and another to keep
our family from starving, and we believed that after
a while the food would be more plentiful. Some
of us had been sick at times, but none of us yet had
come near to death. We sympathized fully with our
deceived and suffering people, and both of us had
a high admiration for Little Wolf. But we settled
our minds to stay here and keep out of trouble.

From the Southern Cheyennes I learned a great
deal about General Crater's dealing with them in that

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

country. All of them said he had smoked the peace
pipe with them at the time they had surrendered to
him, seven years before he was killed. According
to the custom among us, this was understood as a
promise by him that never again would he fight
against the Cheyennes. When they learned that he
had been killed by our people and the Sioux, they
considered him as having deserved that kind of death,
on account of his failure to keep his peace pipe oath.

They told us also about the band of Southern
Cheyennes who started out for the North, to join us,
during the summer when we fought the great battle.
Their medicine man chief was with the band, and
he had the tribal medicine arrows and its tepee with
him. Soldiers got after them. The medicine man
chief and his wife separated themselves in the scat-
tering flight from the soldiers, each of the two taking
two of the four sacred arrows. After a few days the
band all got together again, on upper Powder river.
But there were so many soldiers in the country that
they decided to go back to the South.

An assemblage of army officers asked me to tell
them about the Custer battle. When they sent for
me my heart said thump thump thump. I was
afraid they might hang me. I went, but I told only a
little. They asked for more talk. They assured me
their hearts were good toward me. They gave me

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TAKEN TO THE SOUTH

lots of money, about five dollars, I believe. Good!
My heart quit thumping. I told them all they asked,
answering many questions. Some things I kept to
myself, but all that I told them was true.

I got a wife from the Southern Cheyennes. She
was my same age, twenty years old. All of my people
and all of her people appeared to be pleased at
our marriage. They gave us presents and we set
up our own lodge. She had been a girl in the Chey-
enne camp at the Washita river when Custer and his
soldiers came there and killed many Cheyennes and
burned their lodges (November, 1868). Chief
Black Pot was one of the killed.

The women and children fled, the same as ours
had done at the Powder river. It was winter, and
there was at that time a deep snow for that country.
Soldiers chased the women and children and killed
many of them as well as the men. My wife, at that
time a girl, was barefooted, as others also were. They
had been surprised early in the morning. She
stopped and cut off pieces of buffalo robe to tie about
her feet, to keep them warm as she ran. They went
to a camp of Snake Indians (Comanches), farther
down the river.

My wife told me she also was with the Cheyennes
when they surrendered to General Custer (1869)
after he had smoked the pipe with their chiefs. When

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

they surrendered, some of the chiefs were put into
prison and had chains put upon their ankles. When
I heard all of this from my wife, as well from many
others of the Southern Cheyennes, it seemed the
Great Medicine may have directed Custer to his death,
as a punishment for having broken his promise to
the Cheyennes.

When I had been six years in the South, the North-
ern Cheyennes were told they might go back now
to their old country. The Little Wolf people had
been given lands on the Rosebud and Tongue rivers.
We could go to them or back to the White river,
where the agency had become known as Pine Ridge.

My father had died while we were in the land of
the southern Indians. My wife and myself, my
mother and her two remaining children all agreed
we would move. A few of our tribal people decided
to remain as members of the Southern Cheyenne
tribe. We who left them went first to Pine Ridge.
After not a very long stay there we were located in
a region I always liked, the Tongue river country
in Montana.

324

XIV
Home Again on Tongue River.

Many changes had taken place in the affairs of
our tribe when I got back among the principal body
of them in Montana. Most of the men who had
surrendered at Fort Keogh went into service there
as scouts for the soldiers of General Miles, whose
Indian name was Bear Coat. They had many stories
to tell of these experiences. They helped in finding
and in fighting some bands of our old friends the
Sioux, who remained hunting through the country
after we had gone from it. I did not like to hear
these stories. I could not help but think these tribes-
men of mine had done wrong in this kind of war-
fare. That was the way the Pawnees, Crows and
Shoshones had done in past times, and we had been
enemies to them because of their having done so.
There came into my heart thoughts that possibly the
death of my own brother Yellow Hair had been
brought about by reason of some Cheyenne having
guided the white men who killed him.

The Nez Perces had come through the country
soon after the part of our tribe had surrendered at
the Elk river fort. The Cheyennes went with the

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

soldiers to fight these other Indians. They had a
battle far to the northward. Most of the Cheyennes
were not in special danger during this battle, but
two of them were said to have been very brave. These
two were White Wolf and All See Him. White Wolf
received a bullet wound across his scalp. He was
stunned and he fell, but he was not killed. A Sioux
scout dragged him into safety. The white soldiers
gave money to the Sioux for his action. This was
the same White Wolf who shot himself through the
left thigh at our battle with the soldiers on the Rose-
bud and had to lie in his bed while his companion
warriors fought the soldiers. of Custer. All See Him
had been a brave man in the Custer battle. He has
another name, John Bighead Man. White Wolf also
got another name after the Nez Perces bullet had hit
him. His new name was Shot in the Head.

Two Moons and White Moon were two Cheyenne
scouts of that time who were not in the Nez Perces
fight. They were out with some Cheyennes chasing
buffalo as the soldier and Indian army traveled in
their hunt for the Nez Perces. In the course of the
chase Two Moons accidentally shot White Moon
through the body. White Moon was entirely dis-
abled, and Two Moons did not feel then like fight-
ing anybody. He helped in taking care of White

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HOME AGAIN ON TONGUE RIVER

Moon, and he paid the Indian doctor a horse for
curing him.

People told me all about the journey of Little
Wolf's band from the South, with the soldiers after
them all along the way. They had come to Fort
Keogh and had surrendered to General Miles. Many
of their men also enlisted as scouts. The Cheyennes
at this place stayed a part of the time about the fort
and a part of the time were allowed to live on the
Rosebud and the Tongue rivers, near the fort. These
combined Fort Keogh Cheyennes had been the be-
ginning of our Tongue River reservation.

The Little Wolf people had some trouble among
themselves on their Way from the southern country.
One case was where a man who had become angered
to craziness about something went at beating his
whole family. He clubbed every one of them he
could reach. All of them were put into an insane
fright. An adult daughter, screaming and struggling
to get away from him, stabbed him with her sheath-
knife. He let loose of her, walked away staggering,
and soon fell dead. The young woman was in great
grief because of her having killed her own father.
The chiefs and all of the people sympathized with
her. She was not punished. That was the only case
I ever knew of a Cheyenne woman having killed
anyone.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

Black Coyote was the cause of one big trouble.
He was the same man of our little band who was
about to shoot when we were giving up our guns
at the time of our surrender at the White River
agency. At a camp east of Powder river, during the
last part of this flight with the Little Wolf people,
an old chief said to him:

"Black Coyote, you have been riding during all
of the journey. Many women are walking. You
should let some one of them have your horse."

"No, it is my horse, and I want to ride," Black
Coyote answered.

"But some of the women are old, and they are
very tired," the chief persisted.

"It is my horse, and I intend to ride it," the young
man stubbornly responded.

"Black Coyote, you are crazy."

"No. You are the crazy one."

The chief flourished his pony whip and lashed
Black Coyote. He laid on stroke after stroke, many
of them. The humiliated man humped his body and
stubbornly hugged his rifle. He was sitting in front
of his lodge. Suddenly he jumped up and ran away.
A short distance off he turned and fired at the chief.
The old man fell dead.

Black Coyote ran on out of the camp. Some Chey-
ennes shot at him, but he was not injured. He kept

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on going, and he never returned. His wife at once
gathered a few of their belongings and followed out
to join him. Her two children and an old woman
went with her. Whetstone, another Cheyenne man,
also left the camp and stayed away with the outcast
people.

The two men went, just after dark one night, to
a camp on Powder river, where were a few soldiers
having a Sergeant with them. The Indians said,
"How," and approached the campfire in a friendly
way. The soldiers were fearful and were on the look-
out, but they replied, "How." After the Indians had
warmed themselves a little, Black Coyote said:

"Give us some bread."

"How," the Sergeant answered, and he gave them
bread.

As the two walked away, for some reason Black
Coyote jerked up his rifle and killed the Sergeant.
Then they rushed off into the darkness.

The soldiers took the body of their Sergeant and
went to Fort Keogh. Soldiers and Cheyennes from
there went out to search for the bad Indians. They
captured them and brought them to the fort. The
two men were put into jail with chains upon their
ankles. A soldier chief known to the Cheyennes as
Little Chief talked to them:

"Did you kill the Sergeant?" he asked them.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

"No/ * they answered him.

Hie next day Little Chief again asked them: "Did
you kill the Sergeant?" Still they said: "No."
After a few days, Black Coyote said: "Yes, I killed
him."

Both of the men were hanged. I was told their
bodies were not taken by the Cheyennes, but were
buried by the white people. The hanging was at
Miles City, I believe.

Black Coyote's wife, the woman warrior at the
Rosebud battle, died while he was in jail. Chey-
ennes made signs to him from a distance, through the
jail windows, and told him she was sick. Every
day he asked: "How is my wife today?" She was
dying, but to cheer him they told him, "She is bet-
ter now." When finally somebody told him she was
dead, he went entirely crazy. He would take no food,
and he fought every white man who came to him.
He had to be beaten and tied first when they went to
hang him. His relatives said it was her death that
caused him to say he had killed the Sergeant. They
say the Sergeant and the soldiers were trying to kill
him at the time. But I know that Black Coyote was
a very excitable man. Bad Indians like him made
lots of trouble for the whole tribe.

The most sorrowful new condition we found in

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coming back to our Cheyenne country was in the
case of Little Wolf himself. Some white men about
the fort were selling or giving whisky to the Indians.
One night, Little Wolf got a bottle of whisky and
right away he drank all of it. He went into the fort
trader's store and leaned forward upon the counter.
He was quiet, but he was dizzy and stumbling here
and there. The trader said: "Little Wolf, you had
better go to your lodge." But he said: "No, I want
to stay here."

Some Cheyenne men and women were playing
cards at a table in the store. Famished Elk, a young
man Sergeant of the scouts, was with them. He
talked to Little Wolf. But the old chief paid no
attention to his talk. Famished Elk took hold of
Little Wolf's arm and said: "Come, I will help you
to get to your lodge." He spoke and acted respect-
fully, but Little Wolf was angered because of the
taking hold of him. He pulled himself away. His
eyes blazed like fire. He stood a moment looking at
the young man. Then he said:

"I will kill you."

He staggered on alone out from the store. Fam-
ished Elk returned to sit in the card game. Nobody
was expecting any further trouble. But not long
afterward the door was opened and Little Wolf stum-

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

bled into the room. He straightened himself, leveled
a rifle and fired. Famished Elk sank down dead upon
the floor.

The old chief went back to his lodge and told his
two wives what he had done. "We must go/* he
added. The three of them went out into the dark-
ness of the night. Soldiers and Cheyennes searched
for them. They searched during the next day and
the next. The missing man and his two wives ap-
peared in Miles City and sat themselves down at a
place in plain view of the people there. A Captain
and some soldiers went to him. This Captain we
knew as Little Chief. He told Little Wolf what it
was said he had done. He further told him:

"You are no more chief of the Cheyennes."

"That is true and just," Little Wolf agreed.

All of the Cheyennes said: "How. It is right.
Little Wolf shall be not any more a chief among
us." But their hearts were sad, not angry, when they
said this. He was not punished in any other way.
But he further punished himself. Before he and
his wives had left their lodge he smashed into pieces
his medicine pipe. Our old tribal laws required this.
It was allowable for him afterward to smoke alone
any small and short-stemmed pipe, such as might be
made from a deer leg bone. But he did not do this.
He denied himself all smoking. He never made any

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offer even to sit in the company of other Cheyennes
smoking together. White men sometimes offered
him cigarettes, but he always refused them. After a
time he learned to chew tobacco, a habit never fol-
lowed by the old-time Cheyennes. It seemed he did
this deliberately, for self-humiliation. He never tried
to intrude himself into any tribal public affairs. The
people remembered his great services in past times.
But nobody consulted him on tribal matters in pres-
ent times. Truly, in every way he never more was
chief among the Cheyennes.

Some Cheyennes who had run away or who could
not be found, when we had been told we must go
to the South, joined other tribes. Of these, some
stayed away, others finally came back to us. Two of
them came back to us on Tongue river. One was
Joseph Tall White Man. He had dodged from the
southern movement by escaping and joining the
Blackfeet Sioux. The other was Little Crow. He
had joined some tribe' of the Sioux.

When I was thirty-one years old (1889) I en-
listed with other Cheyennes to form a new band of
scouts for the soldiers at Fort Keogh. For a long
time we did not do much except to drill and work
at getting out logs from the timber and building
houses for ourselves. The soldier officers bought
horses for us to ride. All of the new horses were

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

wild. We had to break them. I got bucked off at
times. But finally, all of us had horses that would
not buck.

I learned to drink whisky at Fort Keogh. The
trader at the fort sold whisky and beer to the soldiers,
but he was not allowed to sell anything of this kind
to the Indians. That made only a little difference.
White men not soldiers would get whisky for us when-
even we had money to give to them. They may have
bought it at the fort trader's store or it may have come
from Miles City. I spent most of my scout pay for
whisky. I never got into any trouble for being drunk,
but sometimes an Indian did get into trouble.

Tall Bull and some other scouts got drunk and
went at night to where some soldiers were sleeping.
The Cheyennes pointed their six-shooters at the sol-
diers and said: "Give us blankets." The soldiers
were scared, so blankets were given the Indians. A
Sergeant went to tell the officers. A Lieutenant of-
ficer came back with him. But the Lieutenant was
as drunk as were the Indians. He went away with-
out doing anything about the matter.

We had plenty to eat at the fort. A soldier named
Jules Chaudel was the cook for our thirty Cheyennes.
A part of my work was to haul water in barrels for
him. I never got so drunk that I forgot to keep the

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barrels filled. He often gave me meat when it was
not time for the Indians to eat.

All of the scouts went for making war the next
year after I enlisted. We were taken to Pine Ridge
reservation. We were told the Sioux were going to
fight against the Cheyennes in that country, so we
were willing to help our own people. Our scouts
were led by an officer we knew as Big Red Nose.*
Willis Rowland, the half -Cheyenne, was our Sergeant.
Soldiers from some other fort came to Fort Keogh
and went with us to Pine Ridge.

When we got to Pine Ridge we learned that it
was mostly the other Sioux tribes, not the Ogallalas,
who were wanting to fight against the white people.
The Cheyennes living there did not want any trouble,
so the bad Sioux were angered also at the Cheyennes.
Some Ogallalas joined the bad Indians. Our Chey-
enne relatives had their lodges torn down and burned.
Big Foot was the principal chief of the Sioux making
the trouble. We knew him, and we were sorry at
having to fight against him, but we were willing to
be on the side of the whites and our own Cheyennes.

We Cheyenne scouts did not get into any battle.
At one time we were all dressed and ready, but the
officers made us stop behind a hill while the soldiers

* Lieutenant Casey.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

went on and killed many Sioux at a camp on a little
valley just over the hill. A Sioux started that fight
by killing an officer who was taking all guns from
them. The soldiers then began to shoot, and many
women and children as well as men were killed. This
trouble was on Wounded Knee creek. At the time
of our advance up the hill I was wearing a warbonnet
for the first time at any battle.

Big Red Nose, our officer, was killed by a Sioux
before this fight. White Moon and Rock Roads, two
of our scouts, were out riding somewhere with him.
They saw four or five Sioux coming on horseback.
The Sioux were riding slowly, and it appeared they
did not intend any harm. But while Big Red Nose
had his head turned in another direction one of the
Sioux fired his rifle. The bullet went through the
head of the officer, from back to front, and he fell
dead from his horse. The two Cheyennes whipped
their horses and got away. The Sioux scalped Big
Red Nose and took all of his clothing.

As the Wounded Knee fight was going on, the
Sioux fled in all directions. The soldier officer now
leading us was White Hat. He sent me out to a little
hilltop to watch where the people running away
might go. I saw one Sioux man ride to a big house.
He limped when he got off and walked into the house.
I told White Hat about him. After a while he got

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some soldiers, and all of us went to the place. From
a distance, I called out in Sioux language for all
people in the house to come out and surrender. No-
body came out. We went close to the door. I called
to ask how many people were in there. A man's
voice answered me that there were three of them.
I told him they must come out, but he did not answer
me. White Hat knocked on the door. He knocked
a second time and a third time. Then he and the
soldiers smashed the door and went into the house.
I followed them.

A Sioux man was lying on a floor bed. A boy was
lying on another floor bed. A woman was sitting
beside the boy. The man had a sheet covering all
of him but his head and neck. I did not know what
else might be under the sheet, but I said:

"You must give up your gun. You will be treated
kindly."

He at once drew a rifle out from under the sheet
and handed it to me. We learned that he had bullet
holes through both legs, but no bones were broken.
The boy had been shot through the left arm. The
woman was not injured. The soldiers got a wagon
and took them to the agency. A soldier doctor there
took care of them.

The troublesome Sioux were gathered out in what
the Indians knew as the Bad Lands. It was a very

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

rough country having no trees and not much grass.
The Cheyennes went out with soldiers and camped
between the agency and that country. We kept
watching to try to find out how many were there and
how many were going there or coming back to the
reservation. It was winter, and the wind blows hard
there much of the time. We had some cold rides.

One night our officer gave me a writing on paper
and told me to take it to the agency. He had the
interpreter explain to me which officer there was to
receive it. The air was full of whirling snow. The
gusts of wind appeared to come from everywhere
except behind me. I wrapped my blanket tightly
about me and kept my body humped up as my horse
moved along the trail. At first I was not afraid, as
it seemed the night was too stormy for any Sioux to
be traveling. Then I began thinking that perhaps
the Sioux might suppose the same thing about the
Cheyennes and the soldiers, and so there might be
many of them along the way. I was startled and my
heart was jumping at every little doubtful sight or
noise. But I could not do anything but keep on
going. I tried to make myself feel better by thinking
of what a good sleep I should have after so hard a
ride.

At the agency I found the officer and gave to him
the paper. Then I lay down on the floor behind his

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stove and went to sleep. Pretty soon the interpreter
awakened me. The officer wanted me. He said:
"You are a good scout. I want you now to take a
message for me back to your officer." I was yet half
asleep. But right away I became all awake again
and got myself ready to go. I was as much afraid on
the way back as I had been in coming. The snow
and the wind whirling it were the same. I did not
freeze, though, and I got to our camp and gave this
paper to my officer. He said: "Good. Now you
may go and sleep." It was almost morning. I slept
far into the day. Nobody awakened me this time.

All of the scouts and Long Yellow Neck, the of-
ficer now with us, were out one night after some
Sioux who had been seen. The Cheyennes were
afraid. We thought there might be many more Sioux
not seen. I went off a little distance aside from the
others, to look and listen where there was more
quietude. I saw the flash of a match. I went cau-
tiously in that direction. I got down into a deep
gulch. I could hear Sioux voices talking above me.
My heart seemed to be jumping all around in my
breast. I kept still until the sound of the voices went
beyond my hearing. I could not see anybody, but the
sounds told me the direction the Sioux were traveling.
I went back to the band and told of what had oc-
curred. All of us then followed a trail along the rim

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

of the gulch. It led us to two lodges. We surrounded
them and then let them know we were there. They
did not fight us. We captured ten Sioux. We made
them give us their guns. I was one of ten scouts
appointed to take them to the agency.

Some Ogallalas were with the Cheyennes as scouts.
All together our band must have numbered sixty or
more. I do not know exactly how many there were
of either Cheyennes or Ogallalas, but I know there
were more of the Cheyennes. Three Cheyennes and
three Ogallalas were sent out one night to watch the
trails. I was one of the three Cheyennes. Long Yel-
low Neck said: "I want you to find out how many
bad Indians are going out from the reservation."

The six of us got upon our horses and rode away
together into the night storm. One Ogallala and I
separated off and dismounted, to look and listen. We
watched particularly for match lighting, as any Indian
who had tobacco was likely to stop long enough to
light a match for smoking. After a little while, we
saw what we were looking for. We moved quickly,
but carefully, toward where we had seen the flash.
We heard voices.

"Yes, they are Sioux," we whispered in agreement.

We rejoined our companions and told them.
Everybody said we ought to go back and tell the
officer. All of us went then to our camp. An Ogal-

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lala knocked on the post at our officer's tent. "Come
in," he said. All of us went into the warm shelter.
Long Yellow Neck was writing. He put aside his
paper and called the interpreter. We told what we
had seen.

"How many of them were there?" the officer asked
one of the Ogallalas.

"I don't know," the Indian replied.

"You are foolish," the officer told him.

He asked others. Each one said: "I don't
know." I said the same. But we explained that it
was too dark to see anybody, that only the flash of
the match had been seen and the voices had been
heard. The officer said:

"Good. Now, all of you go out again. If you
see any Sioux, count them."

We found a fresh trail of horses going toward the
Bad Lands. By a creek we saw that different camp-
ings had been made. Many carcasses of cattle were
there. They were white men cattle that had been
stolen and butchered by the Sioux.

We three Cheyennes separated off from the three
Ogallalas. The two parties scouted at a little dis-
tance from each other. After our three had traveled
only a short while, I left my horse to be held by one
of the others while I crept to the top of a bluff for
looking and listening. A commonly traveled trail

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

followed along past this bluff. Pretty soon I heard
horses coming. I hugged close to the ground behind
a rock. Four Sioux men rode past me toward the
Bad Lands. They were almost close enough to reach
out and strike me. I kept as still as the rock, except
for my shivering from fright. When they were gone
far enough I slid back a little distance and then
jumped up and ran to my. two companions. We
found the three Ogallalas. They also had seen the
four men. All six of us hurried back to our camp.
The others appointed me to do the talking for our
report. I told of how I had hidden behind the rock
and counted them as they had passed by me. "There
were four of them," I said. Long Yellow Neck wrote
my name on a piece of paper. Then he said:
"Good. All of you may go now and sleep."
I believe I slept, but I am not sure whether I was
sleeping and dreaming or was only lying there and
thinking. I kept my cartridge belt buckled on me
and I hugged my rifle to my body. It seemed that
angry Sioux Indians were all about me. They wfere
searching for me, to kill me. Some of them were
striking at me with war clubs and slashing at me with
knives. I heard calling of my name: "Wooden Leg/*
I jumped up and stood there wide awake.

Long Yellow Neck and a soldier with him were

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in our tent. The soldier was reading off our names
from a paper he had in his hands.

"The same six are to go and scout again/' he said.

Another Cheyenne was added to us. The seven
of us got our horses. We were about to go when an
Ogallala rode into camp. He had come from the
agency. We wondered what was his errand. We
waited to find out. He went to Long Yellow Neck's
tent. Pretty soon everybody was saying:

"All of the scouts and soldiers go back to Pine
Ridge."

I do not know how the others felt, but my own
heart fluttered in pleasure. I did not want then to
fight any Sioux. We were only a short time in get-
ting all of the camp ready to move. When we were
about to start on our way, Long Yellow Neck said:
"Now, I want someone to stay behind and watch, to
see if any of the Sioux are following us." He asked
if I would stay. I said, "No, I do not want to stay
behind." He asked Bad Horses, Foolish Man, White
Bird, Sweet Grass and others. Some Ogallalas were
asked. Everybody asked said, "No." While this
was going on, three of the Ogallalas slipped away
afoot, leaving their three horses. Long Yellow Neck
told us he had thought all of us were brave men, but
he had learned now that we were not brave. Finally

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

I said: "I will stay behind and watch." Little Thun-
der, an Ogallala, then said he would stay with me.

We two caught the three horses left by the Ogal-
lalas who had run away afoot. Little Thunder said:
"I am hungry." I too was hungry, but we had no
food. We drove the three horses ahead of us and
hurried forward. Soon we caught up with the scouts
and soldiers. "Give us something to eat," we asked.
A soldier took a big box of crackers from a pack mule
and gave it to us. He gave us also plenty of bread.
We ate until we were full up, and then we put what
was left upon one of the three horses we had been
driving. We led the three now and followed on far
behind the other people.

The three Ogallalas afoot came to us. They asked
us for bread and crackers. "If you will stay with
us we will give you some," we told them. They
agreed. We gave them all they wanted. We let
them have their horses. They rode with us all of
the remainder of the way to the agency, helping us
in watching back to see if any Sioux were following.
We kept ourselves far behind. None of us saw any
of the bad Indians anywhere along the way. When
we rode into the agency camp, all of the soldiers and
scouts were already there. We told Long Yellow
Neck that we had not seen any Sioux following us.
He said:

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"Good. Now you may sleep.*'

During the time we were scouting for the soldiers
at Pine Ridge I got a Sioux head dress. It was a
cap of some kind of skin having at its front a buffalo
horn. I got it while the soldiers and scouts were
camped on lower Wounded Knee creek. I was wear-
ing it as I rode into camp. A soldier Sergeant said
to me: "I wish you would give that to me." "What
would you give to me?" I asked him. "Five dollars,"
he said. He gave me the five dollars and I gave him
the buffalo horn head dress.

About four hundred Cheyennes came with us when
we left Pine Ridge to return to Fort Keogh. These
were people of ours who had fled from the South with
Little Wolf and Dull Knife, and who had been stay-
ing since then among the Ogallalas on the Pine Ridge
reservation. But now they were allowed to come and
join the main body of Cheyennes in Montana. A
few Cheyennes still remained with the Ogallalas, but
this movement of the big band brought together what
was considered to be the entire Northern Cheyenne
tribe. An officer known to us as Small Chief *
brought us back.

Cheyenne visitors from the Rosebud and Tongue
river lands were camped at all times near Fort Keogh.
We scouts who had families kept lodges for them

* Lieutenant McEniney.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

among the visiting campers. Relatives and friends
were shifting constantly to or from the fort, Miles
City and our Cheyenne country seventy miles south
of us. I had my food with the other scouts, from the
soldier supplies and at our eating room at the fort.
But I spent much of my time at the home lodge. One
day I saw the old man Little Wolf at the camp. I
said to my wife:

"I see Little Wolf. He is my relative. One of his
wives is a sister of my father. I think I ought to in-
vite him to eat at our lodge."

"I am glad to hear you say that," she answered
me. "Tell him to come now." Right away she be-
gan to prepare bread and meat and coffee.

When I brought Little Wolf I found he was partly
drunk. He fumbled the food as he sat and ate. He
ate freely, as though he were very hungry. He kept
quiet and kept looking downward during all of the
time. When he was done eating, I told him of my
sympathy with him in his great trouble. He then
told me all about the affair. "I loved the young
man and all of his people," he said. "I was crazy
when I shot him." At this time of conversation,
Little Wolf was about seventy years old.

This man gave away all of his horses after he had
been put out of his position as our greatest chief.
After that, all of his traveling was done afoot. Some-

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times he went alone, sometimes one or both of his
wives accompanied him. They took along whatever
packs they could carry, and they slept in temporary
shelters or with no shelter. He went at times to visit
the Crows. He visited also the Arapahoes, in Wyo-
ming, walking two hundred miles or more and back
again. He died in 1904, at the age of eighty-three
years. His wives and close friends stood his dead
body upright on a high hill overlooking the Rosebud
valley, where many Cheyennes had their reservation
homes. A great heap of stones was built up to en-
close him thus standing upright. Twenty-four years
later, his bones were brought to the agency cemetery
and put into a grave there. Bird,* the old-time In-
dian story white man who lives in New York, had a
stone put at the head of this agency grave.

Even the nearest relatives of Famished Elk never
kept bad hearts against Little Wolf. At different
times I have heard talk of him from Bald Eagle, a
brother of the young man killed. Bald Eagle said:

"Little Wolf did not kill my brother. It was the
white man whisky that did it."

Dr. George Bird Grinnell, the author.

347

XV
A Tamed Old Man.

Thirty years after the great battle against Custer,
there was a gathering of Indians and white people
at the Little Bighorn. Besides a few of our people,
there were Crows, Sioux, Arapahoes, Shoshones, Nez
Perces, Kiowas, Piegans, Gros Ventres and Paiutes,
these last known to us as Fish-Eaters.

All Cheyennes who had fought in the battle were
asked to come and join the other Indians and the
white people in a peace feast. The place is only two
short days of wagon traveling from our Lame Deer
agency. But only a few Cheyennes would go there
for the gathering. Among us there was much of such
talk as: "Soldiers will be there. Seeing us might
anger them so much as to make them want to kill
us." * Seven of us decided to go. These were the
younger Chief Little Wolf, White Elk, Bobtail Horse,
Two Moons, Buffalo Calf, myself Wooden Leg, and
Brave Bear, a Southern Cheyenne. Four of the seven
men took along their wives and their lodges.

In a big council lodge of the Crows a white man

* A few old Cheyennes still talked this way in 1026. Fear kept
them from attending the fiftieth anniversary of the battle. T. B. M.

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A TAMED OLD MAN

medicine doctor * asked different ones to tell some-
thing of the great battle. He said he had heard the
white people say that Two Moons was a great war-
rior there, and he asked Two Moons to make a speech.
This Cheyenne stood up and talked a long time. He
said he had been the big chief of all the Cheyennes
during the fight. He filled the ears of his hearers
with lots of other lies, while the rest of us laughed
among ourselves about what he was saying. Other
Cheyennes and Sioux were asked to get up and talk,
but none of them would do so.

The medicine doctor looked at my cousin, the
younger Chief Little Wolf, and asked him:

"Were you at the Custer battle?"

"Yes."

"Were you in the first fight above the camps?' 9

"No."

"Who took the soldier horses?"

"The Sioux took most of them. The Cheyennes
got a few. There were many Sioux and only a few
Cheyennes in the fight."

"Who took the soldier guns?"

"The same the Sioux got many, the Cheyennes
got a few."

*Thc Cheyenne interpreter for them on that occasion informed me
ibis man was Doctor Dixon. T. B. M.

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"Did you see Custer, either before or after he
was killed?"

"I do not know. Nobody knew anything about
Custer."

"Our soldiers afterward could not find the bodies
of all the white men killed. What became of them?"

"I do 'not know."

"Were any of them taken away and hidden?"

"I think not, but I do not know."

"Were any of them, either dead or alive, taken to
the camps?"

"I think not. I never heard of any taken there."

"Tell me all about what you saw and what you
did at the battle."

But Little Wolf would not tell. I said to him:
"Go on, tell the truth, but do not talk like Two
Moons did." He was afraid, though. There were
many white people and soldiers all around us, and he
feared they might become angry.

White Elk, Bobtail Horse, Two Moons, Brave Bear,
Buffalo Calf and the Sioux men all answered the same
kind of questions in the same way. But none of them
except Two Moons would say anything further about
the fight. Bobtail Horse was either nervous or
scared, so he got tangled a little. The doctor asked
him the same kind of questions. Then he asked:

"How old are you?"

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A TAMED OLD MAN

Bobtail Horse sat there as though he did not under-
stand what was being asked. Pretty soon he began
to count on his fingers. He counted them over and
over. Finally he said: "I do not know." All of us
knew exactly one another's age, but none of us inter-
fered to help him in answering the question. The
doctor did not ask him any further questions.

In my turn at the talking I was asked the same
kind of questions:

"Wooden Leg, were you in the Custer battle?"

"Yes, I was there."

"Were you in the first fight up above the camps?"

"Yes."

"Good. How old were you at that time?"

"Eighteen winters."

"How old are you now?"

"Forty-eight."

"Good. Tell me where you were during all of the
time. Tell me what you saw and what you did."

I told him. It happened I was the only Indian at
this gathering who had been in the first fight with
what the white people call the Reno soldiers. It be-
gan with my brother and I being awakened by the
shooting and our running to get our horses. I fol-
lowed my own doings up the valley and into the
chase after the soldiers through the river and up the
hill. I showed how I had taken a rifle from a soldier.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

I described the killing of the Corn Indian and my
taking his gun. The doctor wrote on a piece of paper
as I talked. My cousin Little Wolf interrupted me:
"You tell too much. Stop talking."

But I did not stop. It appeared none of the sol-
diers nor other white people listening to me were
angry. This medicine doctor looked to me like a
good man, one who understood that we had killed
soldiers who had come to kill us. I described to him
the way I had helped to kill the soldier getting water
at the river. I told about the Indians surrounding
the Custer soldiers on the long ridge and about many
things that happened there. The doctor still was
writing on the paper. He broke in with some ques-
tions and I answered each one as straight as I knew
how to answer it. Little Wolf said to me: "Tell
him Custer killed himself, and see if he becomes
angry." But I did not say anything about that.
Other Indians, at other times, had tried to tell of the
soldiers killing themselves, but the white people lis-
tening always became angry and said the Indians
were liars, so I thought it best to keep quiet. Other
questions came:

"Did you see Custer?"

"I suppose I did, but I do not know. I think that
no Indians there knew anything about him being with
the soldiers."

352

A TAMED OLD MAN

"Did you see soldiers having special marks on the
shoulders of their coats?"

"Yes, I noticed some of them."

"Did you know they were chiefs among the sol-
diers?"

"I did not know then, but I know now."

"How many soldiers did you see having the mark-
ings on the shoulders?"

"I do not know. When we were fighting them they
all looked alike to us, the same as a herd of buffalo."

"How many Indians were killed?"

I told him the number of dead Cheyennes, Uncpa-
pas and others.

"Good," he said, and he wrote the numbers on his
paper.

The Cheyennes and some other Indians went with
a few soldiers to Fort Custer, not far from the place
where had been the great battle. The soldier officers
at the fort shook hands with all of us. We gathered
together, and some friendly speeches were made by
officers and by Indians. All I said there was: "A
long time ago we were enemies. Today we are
friends." The medicine doctor rode beside me as we
were going to and from the fort. We made sign-talk
together along the way. I showed him the only place
where the Cheyenne tribe ever camped west of the
Bighorn river. From the top of the Fort Custer hill

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

we could see the place, just across from the mouth
of the Little Bighorn.

Many pictures were made of Cheyennes, Sioux,
Nez Perces and Crows. Some were made on the
valley and by the river where had been the first fight,
others were made on the battle ridge and at its north-
ern side. Pictures were made at night when the In-
dians were dancing. The bright flashes scared some
of the Indians, but soon it was learned what was
being done.

Wagons came loaded with rations. We were given
plenty of beef, bacon, bread, crackers, coffee, sugar,
meat in cans, and other food. We were on the valley
by the river, where had been the fight with the Reno
soldiers. A soldier officer rode about, saying:

"All Indians who were in the Custer battle get
rations. No others are to be given any food/'

But when the distribution began, lots of Crows
came running. They crowded forward saying:

"Oh, meat! Give some to us."

Their actions made me angry. I let loose my
tongue:

"You Crows you are like children. All Crows
are babies. You are not brave. You never helped
us to fight against the white people. You helped
them in fighting against us. You were afraid, so you

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A TAMED OLD MAN

joined yourselves to the soldiers. You are' not
Indians."

Bobtail Horse said to me: "Ssh, keep your tem-
per." My cousin Little Wolf said: "You are doing
right. Tell them what we think of them." The
Crows stopped asking for the rations. All of them
went back and kept quiet.

Besides the rations given to us every day, each of
us was paid three dollars at the end of each day, for
four days. When the gathering ended and we were
getting ready to go back to our reservation, we were
given plenty of extra food to eat along the way. Some
of it was eaten by ourselves and our friends after we
arrived home.

Another great gathering of whites and Indians as-
sembled there fifty years after the battle. All of the
Cheyennes, particularly the men who had been in the
battle, were invited to go. Many lodges of our people
traveled over the divide to that place and camped
there, but I stayed at my home. Two times I was
called to our Ashland district telephone for a talk
from the agency. "We want you to go to the great
peace celebration," I was told. At each time of this
talking I made reply: "I will think about it." The
more I thought about it, the more I felt like staying
away. The battlefield is on the present Crow Indian

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

reservation. I do not want to go upon their lands. I
have made up my mind never again to go to any place
where I might be called upon to shake hands with
a Crow.

The younger Chief Little Wolf, my cousin, had
the boyhood name Thorny Tree. His mother was
a sister of my father and of the older Little Wolf's
first wife. The young nephew Thorny Tree showed
special bravery at a battle with the Shoshones. The
old chief was so pleased at this manly conduct of
his wife's relative that he told the young warrior:

"I give you my name. From this day on you shall
be Little Wolf."

This younger man stayed with the Cheyennes at
the Pine Ridge reservation, after the peaceful times
came. Among them he was made a tribal chief.
When the band of them were moved to our Tongue
River reservation he was made a chief of the entire
tribe. A few years later he was accepted as the prin-
cipal old man chief. He told me that during the
years he was living at Pine Ridge he often was mis-
taken for the same Little Wolf who led the Chey-
ennes in their flight from the South. In fact, he
was with that band of fleeing Cheyennes, but he
joined that group of them who went to Pine Ridge.
The older Little Wolf and his last followers came
to Powder river and on to Fort Keogh. The old

356

A TAMED OLD MAN

chief never was at Pine Ridge after that time.

My cousin told me that white people often em-
barrassed him also in supposing him to have been
famed as Chief Little Wolf at the Custer battle. In
this case, the older man was not in the fight, he and
a small band of Cheyennes having followed on the
trail of the soldiers and having arrived at the camps
after the white men all had been killed. The younger
Little Wolf was already there with the great tribal
assemblage. The family lodge of his father, Big
Left Hand, was near to my own father's family lodge.
This last Chief Little Wolf, my cousin, died in 1927,
at the age of 76 years.

I visited the Arapahoes and the Shoshones, in
Wyoming, several years ago. Eight Cheyenne men,
some of us with our wives and our tepees went on
this trip. I had a Custer gun, borrowed from a
Cheyenne who kept it in hiding. We saw a big
band of elk in a valley of the Bighorn mountains.
I was chosen to lead the hunters in getting ourselves
close to them. I said: "Yes, I will lead, but you
others must stay back until I tell you it is time for all
to show themselves and begin to shoot." As we got
well toward the elk band they suddenly ran away
into a forest. I soon learned that one of our men
had pushed on ahead and frightened them. "You
are foolish/* was all I could say to him. We saw

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

trails of other elk, plenty of them, but we did not see
any others of the elk themselves.

High up on the top of a rocky bluff we saw a big-
horn, what the white people call a mountain sheep.
Different ones of us shot at it and missed it. An-
other man and I then shot, at the same moment. The
animal tumbled down the mountain. When we got
to it we found that both of our bullets had struck
the front part of its body. We enjoyed that meat.
It was the first bighorn meat I had eaten for several
years.

Nine sleeps we made on our way to the reservation
where we were going. We stopped with the Arapa-
hoes, good friends of the Cheyennes all during the
old times. There had been friendly intermarriages
between our people and theirs. There was much of
inquiring about Arapahoes living among us on our
reservation. These people made gifts to us. They
could not give much, because they were as poor as
the Cheyennes.

We moved camp for a visit with the Shoshones.
In the old times they and the Cheyennes were con-
stantly on terms of enmity. But now they received
us cordially. From all sides came, "How," "How,"
"How." An old chief of theirs went riding among
them and calling out: "Everybody come and shake

358

A TAMED OLD MAN

hands with our guests, the Cheyennes. Let them
know we are glad they came to visit us/'

Men, women, old people, boys, girls, all moved
along past our group and greeted us with hand-
shakes. They brought food. There were big piles
of all kinds of things the Indians like to eat. After
a while, they began to bring horses. One after an-
other they kept giving these to us. Every Cheyenne
among us had more horses than he could lead, when
we parted from the Shoshones. I had nine of them
presented to me. When we got back among our own
people at home we were the richest Indians in our
tribe. We had horses to give away to our friends.
All of the Cheyennes agreed that the Shoshones have
good hearts, that they are a good people.

An Arickaree Indian visited me at my place on
Tongue river a few years ago. We talked of the
Custer battle. He told me one of their chiefs had
been killed there. He described him. The special
features of his war clothing were a fine buckskin
shirt and a necklace made of bear claws. I described
to him the Arickaree I had helped to kill. This one
had on a buckskin shirt. An eagle feather stood up
from his back hair. A red string tied his hair to-
gether behind. If he had a bear-claw necklace I did
not see it. I did not see this kind of necklace on

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A WABRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

any of the three Arickarees I saw dead. It may be
one of the other two had one and it had been taken
from him before I saw the dead body.

I went to Washington when I was fifty-five years
old. Little Wolf, Two Moons and Black Wolf were
old men with me as delegates to speak for our tribe.
Three younger men who could talk the white man
language went with us. They were Willis Rowland,
Ben Shoulderblade and Milton Little White Man.
At a meeting with white men, there were some
speeches made. Two Moons did most of the talking
for us. The rest of us did not care to make any
long talks. Two Moons told these people he was a
big chief leading all of the Cheyennes at the Custer
battle. None of us said anything in dispute of him
at the meeting, but when we got away to ourselves
Black Wolf said to him: "You are the biggest liar
in the whole Cheyenne tribe. 5 ' Two Moons laughed
and replied: "I think it is not wrong to tell lies to
white people."

The same white man medicine doctor who had
been at the gathering by the Little Bighorn was in
Washington. He was good to us, helping us to see
the strange sights in the big city. He could make
good signs, so he and I talked much together. We
went up to the top of a very tall stone he said was
Washington's monument. We rode up to the top

360

Photo by Hogan

WOODEN LEG, HIS WIFE AND THEIR DAUGHTER, IN 1914

A TAMED OLD MAN

and walked a long and winding stairway to the
bottom.

A big ship took us Cheyennes out upon the great
water. All of us became sick and vomited. "It is
the same as whisky," we said to each other. The
ship took us to New York. There we visited our
friend Bird, the old-time Indian story white man.
The white man medicine doctor was traveling with
us. He went with us on to Philadelphia, where we
visited the biggest trader store I ever saw. In a the-
ater in this city we sat upon a platform before a
great crowd of white people. I was asked to make
a speech. I talked, but only for a short time. One
of our interpreters repeated to them what I said.
This visit to the great cities was at some time during
the spring (1913), in March or April, I believe.

I lied to one man in New York. He asked me
many questions. For a while I answered them as
best I could. But it began to appear he was trying
to show the old-time Indians as being low and mean
people. I had told him a great deal about the fight-
ing, about the taking of horses and saddles and guns,
about other matters of this kind. I found I did not
like him, so I decided to end our talk.

"What time of day was it when all of the Custer
soldiers had been killed?" he asked me.

"I don't know," I answered him.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

"Did the Indians keep the money they took from
the soldiers?"

"I don't know."

"Did you get any of it?"

"I don't know."

After these answers he quit talking to me and went
away.

The medicine doctor friend came several years
afterward from Washington to our Lame Deer
agency. I saw and talked with him here. I still
keep a big flag he gave to me. I liked him. He was
a good man, one having a heart good toward Indians.

The guns taken by Cheyennes from the Custer
soldiers were given up or had been thrown away by
those of our people who surrendered at the White
River agency. I think that all of the Sioux also had
to give their guns of all kinds to the soldiers chiefs
at their reservations. But at Fort Keogh General
Miles was good to the Cheyennes. He allowed them
to keep their guns. I suppose that many Indians
threw away their Custer guns, for fear of being found
out and punished for having killed those soldiers.
But the Fort Keogh Cheyennes kept theirs hidden. A
few of these have been buried with the owners who
died. But even to this day, I know of several of the
Glister rifle guns hidden among the people on our
reservation. White Elk and Spotted Wolf used to

362

A TAMED OLD MAN

have Ouster soldier six-shooters. These two men
are dead. I do not know what became of their six-
shooters. The Cheyennes also have yet some of the
Custer soldier ammunition belts and saddle-bags.
They do not like to tell of having these captured war
things, because there are some white people who
become angry when they talk of the old times of war-
fare between the whites and the Indians.*

I have yet four of the ten arrows I made from
the cattle neckyoke picked up at the town when we
were on our way to the South. For keeping my
comb and paints I have a flat pouch made from a
bootleg. The boots I got at the White River agency
the next day after my hunting party went there to
surrender. Another young man and I were walking
in the neighborhood of the soldier tents there. I
found a pair of soldier boots among some other arti-
cles also cast aside by the white men. The soles
were worn, but the tops were good. I knew how to
make use of them. I cut off the worn bottom parts
and kept the tops. My mother sewed one of them
into the pouch. I know of some Cheyennes who
still have such carriers made from bootlegs of Custer
soldiers.

* During 1926 and 1927 I came into possession of six carbines, three
ammunition belts, one full pair of saddle-bags and one half-pair of
same, that these Fort Keogh Cheyennes had kept hidden ever since
their having been taken from the Custer soldiers in 1876. T.B.M.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

I lost the medicine pipe given to me by the Ogal-
lala Sioux man at the White River agency. That
was my second medicine pipe. The third one came
to me when I was somewhere past forty years old.
An Uncpapa Sioux visiting me at my place gave it
to me. I still have it. It is made of the red stone
found in their part of the country. After he had
given to me this pipe I went on a journey into the
Bighorn mountains. There I got some blue stone
of the kind used for making Indian pipes. I made
two of them. I now have three pipes, one red one
and two blue ones. I have kept all three of them
for several years, and I do not expect to sell any
of them.

I was baptized by the priest at the Tongue river
mission when I was almost fifty years old. My wife
and our two daughters were baptized too. I think
the white people pray to the same Great Medicine
we do in our old Cheyenne way. I do not go often
to the church, but I go sometimes. I think the white
church people are good, but I do not believe all of
the stories they tell about what happened a long time
ago. The way they tell us, all of the good people
in the old times were white people. I am glad to
have the white man churches among us, but I feel
more satisfied when I make my prayers in the way
I was taught to make them. My heart is much more

364

A TAMED OLD MAN

contented when I sit alone with my medicine pipe
and talk with the Great Medicine about whatever
may be troubling me.

Our old ways of worship were kept up through
several years after we came to this reservation. Our
Great Medicine dances and other old ceremonies were
carried out as we had them in the days when we
traveled over the whole hunting region. Then the
government compelled us to quit them. I think this
was not right. Lately, though, the conditions have
changed. We were allowed to have our Great Medi-
cine dance in 1927, again in 1928 and in 1929.

We had good medicine men in the old times. It
may be they did not know as much about sickness
as the white men doctors know, but our doctors knew
more about Indians and how to talk to them. Our
people then did not die young so much as they do
now. In present times our Indian doctors are put
into jail if they make medicine for our sick people.
Whoever of us may become sick or injured must have
the agency white man doctor or none at all. But he
can not always come, and there are some who do not
like him. I think it is best and right if each sick
one be allowed to choose which doctor he wants.
When Eddy was agent he let us keep our own old
ways in all these matters. Our people liked him the
best of all the agents we have had.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

A policeman came to my place, one time, and told
me that Eddy wanted to see me at the agency office.
He did not say what was wanted. I thought : "What
have I done?" I went right away. I never had been
much about the agency, and I did not know Eddy
very well. But the people all the time were saying
he was a good man, so I was not afraid. When I
got there, a strange white man was at the office. The
interpreter told me this man was from Washington.
Eddy and the other man talked to me a little while,
about nothing of importance. Then Eddy said:

"We want you to be judge."

The Indian court was held at the agency. My
home place was where it now is, over a divide from
the agency and on the Tongue river side of the reser-
vation. I accepted the appointment. I was paid ten
dollars each month for going to the agency and at-
tending to the court business one or two times each
month. Not long after I had been serving as judge,
Eddy called me into his office. He said:

"A letter from Washington tells me that Indians
having two or more wives must send away all but
one. You, as judge, must do your part toward seeing
that the Cheyennes do this."

My heart jumped around in my breast when he
told me this. He went on talking further about the
matter, but I could not pay close attention to him.

366

A TAMED OLD MAN

My thoughts were racing and whirling. When I
could get them steady enough for speech, I said to
him:

"I have two wives. You must get some other man
to serve as judge."

He sat there and looked straight at me, saying
nothing for a little while. Then he began talking
again:

"Somebody else as judge would make you send
away one of your wives. It would be better if you
yourself managed it. All of the Indians in the United
States are going to be compelled to put aside their
extra wives. Washington has sent the order."

I decided to keep the office of judge. It appeared
there was no getting around the order, so I made up
my mind to be the first one to send away my extra
wife, then I should talk to the other Cheyennes about
the matter. I took plenty of time to think about
how I should let my wives know about what was
coming. Then I allowed the released one some
further time to make arrangements as to where she
should go. The first wife, the older one, had two
daughters. The younger wife had no children. It
seemed this younger one ought to leave me. I was
in very low spirits. When a wagon came to get her
and her personal packs I went out and sat on a knoll
about a hundred yards away. I could not speak to

367

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

her. It seemed I could not move. All I could do
was just sit there and look down at the ground. She
went back to her own people, on another reservation.
A few years later I heard that she was married to a
good husband. Oh, how glad it made my heart to
hear that!

I sent a policeman to tell all Cheyennes having
more than one wife to come and see me. One of
them came that same afternoon. After we had
smoked together, I said:

"The agent tells me that I as the judge must order
all Cheyennes to have only one wife. You must
send away one of yours/*

"I shall not obey that order," he answered me.

"Yes, it will have to be that way," I insisted.

"But who will be the father to the children?" he
asked.

"I do not know, but I suppose that will be
arranged."

"Wooden Leg, you are crazy. Eddy is crazy."

"No. If anybody is crazy, it is somebody in
Washington. All of the Indians in the United States
have this order. If we resist it, our policemen will
put us into jail. If much trouble is made about it,
soldiers may come to fight us. Whatever man does
not put aside his extra wife may be the cause of the
whole tribe being killed.

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A TAMED OLD MAN

Many of our men were angered by the order. My
heart sympathized with them, so I never became of-
fended at the strong words they sometimes used.
Finally, though, all of them sent away their extra
wives. Afterward, from time to time, somebody
would tell me about some man living a part of the
time at one place with one wife and a part of the
time at another place with another wife. I just lis-
tened, said nothing, and did nothing. These were
old men, and I considered it enough of change for
them that they be prevented from having two wives
at the same place. At this present time I know of
only one old Cheyenne man who has two wives. They
are extremely old, are sisters, and they have been
his two wives for sixty or more years. He stays a
part of the time with one of them and a part of the
time with the other. The sister-wives visit each
other, but they have different homes, several miles
apart.

Throughout ten years I kept the position of judge.
I rode my horse or went in my wagon to the agency
once or twice each month. It became tiresome to
me. Eddy went away, and we had another agent.
I decided to resign, and I did so. After I had been
out of the office a few years there was another change
in agents. The man we now have, the one we have
named Sioux Agent, was put in charge of our reser-

369

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

vation. One day, Sioux Agent sent a message call-
ing me to his office.

"I want you to be judge again," he said. "You
will be paid twenty-five dollars each month."

That was better than the ten dollars each month I
had been paid during the ten years of my first service.
I took his offer. So now, in my old age, I am helping
my people to learn the ways of the white man govern-
ment. For the old people, it is a great change, so I
try to apply my thoughts at teaching the young Chey-
ennes whatever I am expected to teach.

I was chosen two times as a little chief of the
Elk warriors, in the old times. But in each instance
I got somebody else to take my place. Also, at two
different times of election of tribal chiefs, since we
have been on the reservation, a band of warriors
came to me and said: "We want you to be a big chief
of the tribe." But I did not want to have that posi-
tion, so in each instance I told my friends to choose
some other man, some one who would like to have
it. Some white people, at different times, have called
me, "Chief Wooden Leg." But I never was a chief,
neither of my warrior society nor of the tribe.

My younger brother's name was Twin. When he
grew up to manhood he went from here to the Minne-
conjoux Sioux. There he was appointed a police-
man. He continued in that duty until his death, a

370

A TAMED OLD MAN

few years age. My mother died here at my home, on
the Tongue river reservation. My younger sister and
myself are the only members of my father's family
yet living. This sister is the wife of Little Eagle.
Their farm place is only a few miles down the valley
from mine.

Both of my daughters went to school at the Tongue
river mission. They lived there during the school
months. Each Sunday we were allowed to take them
to our home. At other times we might go to the
mission and see them for a few minutes. Later, I
built a house only a quarter of a mile from the Mis-
sion, and on a sloping hillside above it. We could
look from our front door and see the children at any
time when they might be outside of the school build-
ings. My wife an " I were pleased at their situation
in life. "They will l*ave more of comfort and happi-
ness than we have had," we said to each other.

But the younger daughter fell into an illness when
she was about fourteen years old. We expected she
soon would be herself again, but she grew worse
instead of better. She became so weak she could not
stay any longer at the school. She continued to go
on downward after we brought her to our home.
Finally, her spirit went back to the Great Medicine.

All of our love now was fixed upon the other
daughter. She advanced to full young womanhood.

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

She could read the white man books, and she could
write letters to our friends far away. But she too
became ill, the same as her younger sister. During
all of one winter she gradually wasted away. Every
afternoon her body burned with fever. Every night
her bed was soaked with the sweating. Every morn-
ing she coughed almost to strangling. Neither the
medicines of the agency physician nor the prayers of
our own medicine men could help her. Just when
the spring grass was coming up, she was buried in our
mission cemetery.

My heart fell down to the ground. I decided then
that the white man school is not good for Indian
children. I think they do not get enough of meat at
the boarding schools. I think too that they are kept
in school too much during each year. They ought
to be out and free to go as they please during all of
the good weather of the autumn and the spring. It
may be that white children can stand it to be in
school most of the year. I do not believe, though,
that Indian children can stand it. It is not good
sense to have the whites and the Indians living by
the same rules.

My sister's daughter and her husband had pity
for me and my wife. They gave to us their oldest
son. He makes his home with us. On the agency
roll his name is Joseph White Wolf. But according

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A TAMED OLD MAN

to the Indian way he is our boy, our grandson. He is
a good boy, comforting and helpful to us. I pray
often that he may become a good man, may get a good
wife, may have many children and may live far into
old age.

My farming land is back from the valley, on a
creek flowing into Tongue river. Each year I have
some alfalfa hay and some oats or wheat, or both. I
have a garden of vegetables, including an acre or
more of corn for our own food. All together, twenty-
one acres was the most land I had in cultivation in
one season. That was a few years ago. I do not have
that much now. I become tired more quickly than
I did in past times. It appears my legs are not now
made of wood, as they used to be.

I get pension money each month because of my
service as a scout at Fort Keogh. For a while it was
twenty dollars monthly. Then it was increased to
tliirty dollars. Now it is forty dollars. As I grow
older it will be further increased. My pay as judge
added to this pension money makes enough for me
to buy food and clothing for my wife and boy, without
need for farming. But I like to have more than I
need, so I can help my friends. I can not do this
many more years.

A few other old Cheyennes get the pension money.
We few are the rich men of our tribe of very poor

373

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

people. Many of our old men and women have a
hard time getting enough food. Some white people
say to them: "You have good land, so you ought
to be prosperous/* They appear not to understand
that Indians are not horn farmers. Besides, many
among us are older than I am. Even if these did
know how to farm, they have not the strength to
do it.

Another thing the white people appear not to
understand: The old Indian teaching was that it is
wrong to tear loose from its place on the earth any-
thing that may be growing there. It may be cut off,
but it should not be uprooted. The trees and the
grass have spirits. Whatever one of such growths
may be destroyed by some good Indian, his act is
done in sadness and with a prayer for forgiveness
because of his necessities, the same as we were taught
to do in killing animals for food or skins. We revere
especially the places where our old camp circles used
to be set up and where we had our old places of
worship. There are many of such spots on our reser-
vation. White people look at them and say: "These
Indians are foolish. There is good land not plowed.'*
But we like to see these places as they were in the
old times. They help to keep in our hearts a remem-
brance of the virtues of the good Cheyennes dead and
gone from us.

374

XVI

Clearing the Docket.

Cheyennes still disagree among themselves about
the number of sleeps the combined tribes stayed at
different camps along the way from east of Powder
river to the Little Bighorn and back again to the
Powder river country. For a long time there was
disagreement as to the length of time we had been at
the battle camp before the Custer soldiers came.
Some said we had been there only one sleep, others
said two sleeps. This dispute was settled, though,
several years ago, when a band of Ogallalas visited us
on this reservation. In a great gathering with them
at our Lame Deer agency there was a general rehears-
ing of the battle at the Little Bighorn. Little Hawk,
a Cheyenne, spoke of us having slept there two nights
before the soldiers came. Somebody corrected him:

"We had slept there only one night."

"I bet you we had been there two sleeps, 59 Little
Hawk replied. He spread out a blanket and laid
upon it some money.

His money was matched. Other bets were made,
by other Indians differing in their beliefs on the sub-

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

ject Old men then were called upon, one after
another, to tell what was in their memories concern-
ing the question. White Elk, young Chief Little
Wolf, Wooden Leg, various other old Cheyennes and
several of the old Sioux, all were asked for expres-
sions of their beliefs. Each one of them said:

"One sleep."

Little Hawk and his supporters finally had to admit
themselves mistaken. In the general exchange of
talk, many corroborating incidents were mentioned.
There came then a full agreement that we had been
in this camp only one night, that the soldiers attacked
us the next morning, that after the fighting had ended
we moved our camps a short distance northwestward
and stayed there all of this night, and that in the late
afternoon of the day after the great battle we left
the place and traveled all night and all the next day
up the Little Bighorn valley. Of the two nights at
the battle place, one had been at the first camping
spot where the soldiers attacked us and the other had
been at the second camping spot, a short distance
away, where we moved on account of our death
losses.

For fifty years we old Cheyennes talked of Bear
Coat, or General Miles, as having been big chief of
the soldiers who came up the Little Bighorn valley

376

CLEARING THE DOCKET

the next day after the Ouster battle.* We have been
corrected by our present white man doctor friend.
He informs us that General Miles did not come into
this country until more than a month after that time*
He says that a General Terry and a General Gibbon
were the chiefs of these soldiers. I never before had
heard of either ofthese two men.

I never had heard of any of General Glister's rela-
tives having been killed with him, until our present
white man doctor friend told us about the two
brothers and the brother-in-law and the nephew. He
tells us also that General Cluster's body was not cut
up. I do not know why he was spared, if such was
the case. I never heard of any f avorings of any dead
man there. I do not know of any reason for inten-
tional difference in treatment of them.

It was not then known to us who was the chief of
these white men soldiers. It was not known to us
where they had come from. We supposed them to
be the same men we had fought on the Rosebud, eight
days before. We had not known who was the chief
of those soldiers on the Rosebud. I never heard any
Indians at that time guessing as to who he may have
been. It made no difference to us.

*lhia mistake of the old Cheyennes arose from their having found
Miles in command of the soldiers at Fort Keogh when they surren-
dered there in 187T. They supposed, and kept right on supposing, that
Be had been the leader of the Yellowstone river soldiers who came up
the Bighorn and the Little Bighorn in June, 1876. T. B. M .

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

I have been told that certain different ones of
Indians have claimed special honor for having killed
Custer himself. All such men are only boasting to
get attention. There was no talk of this kind during
the hours and days right after the battle. If there
had been, all of us would have known of it. I tell
you again: None of us knew anything about Custer
being there. The few Southern Cheyennes and the
few Sioux warriors who had seen him in earlier times
did not learn until many weeks later that he had been
killed in this battle. It was weeks or months later
when the most of us first learned that there ever was
such a man. The white people, not the Indians, told
us.

Even if some white man soldier in the battle had
been well known to all of the Indians it would have
been hard to recognize him there. During the first
hour or two of the fighting we were too far away to
single out and recognize any particular one. As we
got close, the air became more and more full of smoke
and dust. The Indians were greatly excited. All of
the white men went crazy. It must have been that
not any one of them looked like his natural self. I
believe that not any warrior then was thinking of
trying to find out which one was the chief of the
soldiers nor which soldier might be a past acquaint-
ance. Every fighter, on both sides, was sweating and

378

CLEARING THE DOCKET

dust-covered. The dead soldiers were dirty and
bloody. Very soon, they were much worse than that.
Their best friends would not have known them.

Of the thirty Indians killed in both fights, I be-
lieve about half fell from the bullets of the Custer
men. Of these fifteen or so killed by the Custer men,
there were more of them fell during the first close
fighting, when Lame White Man led us and himself
was killed, down toward the river, than fell at any
other one section of the field. The soldiers in the en-
tire battle with the Custer men could have killed a
great many more of us, or we should have gone away
and left them after some further fighting, if their
whisky had not made them go crazy and shoot them-
selves. I do not know just how many of them we
killed, but I believe the number was not more than
twenty or thirty, all together. Some of these were
during the slow distant shooting time and some were
after we had gone among them and found badly
wounded men to kill at once. There was no captur-
ing alive. I did not hear any Indian talk of wanting
to make such capture.

All of our dead Cheyennes were found, were taken
away and were buried. I am not sure about all of die
Sioux dead, but it seems they all must have been
found, as there was the remainder of that afternoon
and much of the next day to make search. The three

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT OJSTER

dead Corn Indians I saw were left where t&y had
been killed.

None of the duster soldiers came any closer to the
river than they were at the time they died. When the
first Indians went out and met them, and exchanged
shots with them, these soldiers were riding along
the ridge far out northeastward.* They kept moving
westward along its crest until they spread out on the
ridge lower down, the ridge where the most of the
battle took place. After about an hour and a half
of the slow fighting at long distances, the group of
forty soldiers who rode down from the ridge along
a broad coulee and toward the river were charged
upon by Lame White Man, followed at once by many
Cheyennes and Sioux. This place of the first Indian
charge and the first sudden great victory is inside of
the present fence around the battlefield and at its
lower side.

The most important warrior among the Cheyennes
was Lame White Man. I believe all of our old men
consider him so. Next in importance and usefulness
were Old Man Coyote; leading chief of the Crazy
Dog warriors, Last Bull, leading chief of the Fox
warriors, and Crazy Head, one of our tribal chiefs
who had been a warrior society chief when he was a

* Many Coster rifle shells have been found scattered along this high
far-out ridge, by J. A. Blummer and other residents. T. B. M.

380

CLEARING THE DOCKET

younger man. The first Indians to go across the
river and fire upon the Custer soldiers far out on the
ridge were two Sioux and three Cheyennes. These
three Cheyennes were Roan Bear, Buffalo Calf and
Bobtail Horse. This last named man is still living,
his home being on the Rosebud side of our reserva-
tion.

Two Moons used to tell white people of his own
great importance in the battle. I believe he was
brave, like many others there, but he was not thought
of as being very important. He was one of the nine
little chiefs of the Fox warriors. The only special
way I heard him talked about was concerning his hav-
ing a repeating rifle, the only one of such guns among
the Cheyennes in this battle. When the smaller part
of our Cheyenne tribe surrendered to General Miles,
at Fort Keogh, Two Moons was chosen by him as
their one big chief. For several years those Indians
were governed by General Miles. From time to time,
in the years following, others of our people were
added to these. The coining of Little Wolf made a
difference, but he lost his place when he killed the
Cheyenne. When all of the tribe finally were as-
sembled on the present reservation, the Fort Keogh
officers and the government agents still kept Two
Moons as the one big chief over all of us. I do not
know of there being among us any great dissatisfac-

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A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT COSTER

tion because of this, but I do know that it was General
Miles, not the Cheyennes, who selected him as our
leader.

There are yet living (1930) among the Cheyennes
more than twenty men and about the same number
of women who were full-grown people with us in the
camp beside the Little Bighorn. I suppose that each
tribe of the Sioux have, in proportion, the same ntim-
bers. We have many more who were children in the
camp and who remember much of what was done at
that time. Last Bull, leading chief of the Fox war-
riors, took his family and joined the Crows after the
days of peace came. His two daughters married
Crow men. The scared and screaming girl I took
upon my horse when the soldiers burned our forty
lodges on Powder river has become an old woman,
a Cheyenne-Crow woman. She is known to the white
people as Mrs. Passes.

Every time I have been where white people have
been asking questions about the Custer battle, some-
body has wanted to know:

"Where was Sitting Bull during the fight?"

For a long time I did not understand why this ques-
tion was pressed so strongly. Then I learned that
white people had been saying: "Sitting Bull was a
coward. He was not with the warriors f in the
fighting."

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CLEARING THE DOCKET

I do not know where he was. I had not thought
about trying to find out. I suppose he was helping
the women and children and old people, where he
belonged. He had a son in the fight. Any man hav-
ing a son serving as a warrior was expected to stay
out of battles and give the son his chance to get war-
rior honors. Lame White Man, the Southern Chey-
enne tribal chief who was killed, went into the fight
because of his having no son there. I suppose it was
the same with Chief Crazy Horse, of the Ogallalas,
and Chief Hump Nose, of the Arrows All Gone. I
do not know of any other tribal chiefs or old men
having mixed into the battle. My father stayed in
the camps, but his staying there was not on account
of personal fear.

I am not ashamed to tell that I was a follower of
Sitting Bull. I have no ears for hearing anybody
say he was not a brave man. He had a big brain and
a good one, a strong heart and a generous one. In
the old times I never heard of any Indian having
spoken otherwise of him. If any of them changed
their talk in later days, the change must have been
brought about by lies of agents and soldier chiefs
who schemed to make themselves appear as good men
by making him appear as a bad man.

It is comfortable to live in peace on the reserva-
tion. It is pleasant to be situated where I can sleep

383

A WARRIOR WHO FOUGHT CUSTER

soundly every night, without fear that my horses may
be stolen or that myself or my friends may be crept
upon and killed. But I like to think about the old
times, when every man had to be brave. I wish I
could live again through some of the past days when
it was the first thought of every prospering Indian to
send out the call:

"Hoh-oh-oh-oh, friends: Come. Gome. Come.
I have plenty of buffalo meat. I have coffee. I have
sugar. I have tobacco. Come, friends, feast and
smoke with me."

THE END

384

Legend for opposite map: A. Near the present-day Crow
Agency, Montana.

1. Uncpapa camp circle.

2. Blackfeet Sioux camp circle.

3. Minneconjoux camp circle.

4. Arrows All Gone camp circle.

5. Ogallala camp circle.

6. Cheyenne camp circle.

Arrows * show Reno troops 9 advance and
retreat.

7. Reno battle line, for a few minutes.

8. Present Garryowen railroad station.

9. Reno entrenchment hill, after retreat across the river.

10. Present Custer monument, in field enclosed by fence.

11. Broad coulee of Medicine Tail creek just across east from

Cheyenne camp circle. _

The long links, ^ **" *" ' -* show approach of
Custer troops, moving northwestward, along a high ridge.
Scattered crossmarks, x x x, show where irregular sec-
ond camps of Indians were placed.
Little Bighorn river flowing northwestward.
Indians forded river at Medicine Tail coulee and also
went along hills from Reno hill, 9, to intercept Custer
soldiers.

CAMP SITES AND OTHER SALIENT POINTS IN VICINITY or
CUSTER BATTLEFIELD, MONTANA.

Legend for opposite map: A. Present-day Miles City, Montana.
B. Present-day Hardin, Montana. C. Near the present-
day Sheridan, Wyoming.

1. Cheyenne camp whipped out and burned, on Powder river,

just above mouth of Little Powder river, March 17, 1876.

2. Where Cheyennes joined the Ogallala band.

3. Where Ogallalas and Cheyennes together joined Sitting Bull's

Uncpapas. Minneconjoux Sioux also came here, making
four separate camp circles.

4. Arrows All Gone Sioux joined here, making five camp circles.

5. Powder river. Blackfeet Sioux made here the sixth camp

circle. Other small bands had come, but not enough for
tribal camp circles.

6. Camp at Tongue river.

7. Upper Wood creek, where they stayed five or six days, for a

great buffalo hunt.

8. The six camp circles on the Rosebud river, about May 19th.

9. Where the Uncpapas had their sun dance, in early June.

10. Reno creek camp, from which the Indians went out at night

to fight Crook's soldiers, on the upper Rosebud.

11. Site of the Crook fight, on the upper Rosebud, June 17th.

12. Custer battle, June 25th.

All moved away together, in the same six tribal camp cir-
cles, until they arrived back at 3, east of Powder river.
Here the great combined camp was broken up, and the
tribes separated, about July 15th.

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